Our steady march into the age of cloud computing leaves mountains of discarded e-waste in its wake — case in point, the once-ubiquitous CD. Rather than recycling discarded CDs, why not roof with them first? James Williamson on Instructibles gives us the how-to on reusing CDs for roofing shingles and a good discussion on the pros and cons. We have profiled a few amazing reuse projects with CDs but this seems like a particularly inspired idea.
The directions for the project entail pre-drilling holes near the edge of each cd for the nails and laying them out like scales over a plywood substrate to cover the center hole. Just like a normal shingle, if water drives past under the first one the CD underneath will stop the water. The CDs’ shiny side-up orientation creates a mind-blowing SRI index number, meaning they reflects almost all solar radiation and keep the interior cool. While we don’t quite recommend tossing these up on your house as your next home improvement project, they might just do the trick if you’re working on a funky green dog house.
+ Instructibles
Via 1-800-Recycling
