When your home's asphalt shingles begin to curl, break loose, and crack from age, it is time to scrape them off your roof to make space for your home's new roofing shingles. Here are three ways to get rid of the one or more layers of old shingles from your roof. 

Toss Them in a Dumpster

If your roof's old shingles are rotten and curling, making them unusable for reuse, an easy way to dispose of them is to dump them in a rented dumpster from a local garbage waste company like Road Runner Waste Service Inc. The garbage company will deliver the dumpster to you and pick it up when you are finished filling it with your roofing waste. And, the dumpster can be positioned just below the roof you are working on, making the disposal work easy. Asphalt shingles weigh two pounds per square foot, so if you have multiple layers of asphalt shingles on your roof that need removing, the work can be heavy if you need to move them a long distance to the dumpster.

As you scrape up the shingles and old tar paper, just slide it down to the edge of your roof and let it fall into the dumpster. If any shingles fall onto your landscaping, collect them at the end of your work day and toss them in the dumpster. As you clean up the shingles, it can also be helpful to rent or buy a magnetic sweeper. This sweeping tool uses a heavy duty magnet to pick up nails, staples, and any other metal fasteners that have fallen from your roof onto the ground. Then, empty the magnetic sweeper into the dumpster with the shingles. As fasteners can easily hide in lawn, flowerbeds, and shrubbery, they can be dangerous if they are stepped on, so it is important to clean them up with the shingles.

Recycle Them

Recycling your shingles helps the environment. Manufactured asphalt shingles consist of 40 percent asphalt, so they can be broken down and used in asphalt road construction. When asphalt shingles are made into road materials, it saves on having to use new asphalt and aggregate, reducing the amount of new resources needed to build and repair roadways. 

Recycling your shingles can also help save your community tax money that would have gone toward purchasing new materials for roads. As a homeowner, you can donate your used roof shingles and help save money on public road projects. 

Recycling asphalt shingles helps improve the quality of your roads. Old ground up shingles that are added to pavement actually improve the quality of the pavement versus using new materials. There are many asphalt shingle recycling centers through the United States and some parts of Canada for you to donate your shingles to. You don't need to worry about removing any metal fasteners from the shingles, as these will be ground up during the recycling process.

Reuse Them in Your Yard

You can also use your old shingles to landscape your yard. Instead of buying new landscape fabric, you can cover the ground with a layer of your old shingles, then add a layer of bark or gravel over the shingles to help keep weeds down while improving the uniform look of your landscaped beds. 

Old shingles also provide the perfect way to control overgrown weeds in a section of your yard. Spread the old shingles over the weeds and allow the sun to heat the shingles, killing the weeds and any weed seeds in the soil. The shingles will also create a barrier preventing moisture and oxygen from getting into the soil to prevent further weed germination. 

Then, you can also lay old singles over the soil to make a mud-free pathway through your garden.

Use any of these three methods to get rid of your old roof shingles.