Oregon State Issues Warning About Mulch Made From Roofing Shingles

Oregon has issued a consumer alert to the public stressing that landscaping mulch made from asphalt roofing shingles may be toxic, and recommending how to dispose of the material.

The state Department of Environmental Quality began distributing the fact sheet after The Register-Guard last week published articles on the problems posed by asphalt mulch.

Since late 2000, manufacturing facilites in Springfield and Portland have made and sold the mulch from waste-petroleum-based shingles. Customers have included the state Department of Transporation in Portland and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County.

In 2004, the DEQ determined that the mulch contains toxins such as arsenic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons in concentrations higher than those considered safe for soils at residential and commercial settings. The agency directed Darold Smith, owner of the Springfield manufacturing site, to stop selling the mulch to homeowners and nonindustrial firms.

Smith says that has in effect shut him down. He still has thousands of tons of the mulch at his 28th Street yard. He says he now gives it away. He disputes DEQ claims that the mulch can be harmful.

No one knows just how much of the material has been used, or where, said Bob Barrows, a DEQ analyst. The material was most likely used in Lane and Marion counties and the Portland metro area, he said.

The DEQ is distributing its consumer alert to the media and to a range of state and local agencies, he said.

In the alert, the DEQ says the mulch is not "immediately hazardous" to people.

"But people should avoid repeated exposure by getting it in their mouths or breathing the dust," the alert says.

The agency advises homeowners and commerical property owners to avoid using the mulch and to remove it if it is in an area with frequent human activity. The ground-up asphalt is pretty easy to identify, so property owners don't need to test it, the DEQ says.

People who remove the material should wear gloves, long-sleeved clothing, long pants and closed-toe-shoes, and moisten the material first to minimize dust, the agency says. They should put it in plastic bags and dispose of it with regular garbage that ends up at a landfill, the agency says. The agency advises against simply covering up the asphalt mulch with regular wood mulch.