Background Until recently, no technically satisfactory or commercially feasible method existed for recycling old roofing felts made of bitumen, an oil derivative. In the Netherlands alone, 70 000 tonnes of roofing felts is incinerated or disposed of in landfills each year. Recently, however, a breakthrough was achieved and new ways for treating bituminous waste were developed and tested on a small scale. Objectives The LIFE project Total Roof Recycling (TRR) aimed at convincing the market that there is a technical and economical feasible alternative to dumping or incinerating old roofing felts. The alternative is recycling into new products, such as roofing felts. Results The project aimed to demonstrate that the recycling of roofing felts is a technically and economically feasible alternative to current practices (incineration or land filling). During the project, an installation was developed and constructed for the recycling of 5 000 tonnes of old roofing felts per year, using a technology that can be easily transferred to other countries in Europe. Unfortunately, due to several technical difficulties at the installation and difficulties in obtaining input material with the required specifications, the continuous operation of the installation was not demonstrated during the project. In 2008, 60 tonnes of recycled material were produced during the 45 days the installation was operational. In 2009, the installation was operational during eight full test weeks, during which the remaining technical difficulties at the installation were successfully overcome. Securing input material of sufficient quality and quantity however, remains problematic. As of today the installation is running continuously. The beneficiary will continue efforts regarding this issue in a new project (“Eco-Protection”) financed under the EU’s Eco-innovation funding programme (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/), which also focuses on the market development for recycled products. The brand name for these products is BiELSo (Bitumen End of Life Solutions). Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).