Asphalt Pavement - America's most recycled product.
Posted by Jesse Willoughby on Wed, Jan 07, 2009 @ 10:57 AM
Did you know that more asphalt pavement is recycled than any other product? Hot Mix Asphalt can be engineered to accept recycled products from other industries, helping to reduce our reliance on landfills.
How much asphalt pavement is recycled each year?
- Volume:80.3 million tons (73 million metric tons)
- Rate: 80% of the asphalt pavement removed during resurfacing projects.
-Federal Highway Administration
- Only 28% of post-consumer goods in the municipal solid waste stream
Let's look at the numbers; the volume of recycled asphalt pavement is...
- 13 TIMES greater than recycling of newsprint/paper
- 27 TIMES greater than recycling of glass bottles
- 89 TIMES greater than recycling of aluminum cans
- 267 TIMES greater than recycling of plastic containers
What is recycled or relcaimed asphalt used for?
- New Roads
- Roadbeds
- Shoulders
- Embankments
Other recycled products are used in making asphalt pavement:
- Old tires
- Slag aggregate
- Roofing shingles
- Foundry sand
SLAG AGGREGATE:
A by-product of steel production, works especially well for high-volume and/or skid-resistance applications such as:
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Automobile manufacturer's test tracks
ROOFING SHINGLES:
Factory rejects are recycled into high-quality pavements. It also works well for industrial and commercial parking lots.
FOUNDRY SAND:
Already screened, blended and ready to use in Hot Mix Asphalt. It reduces cost of sand by about 40% and 100,000 tons were used in Hot Mix Asphalt in 2000 alone.
Recycling of asphalt pavement benefits everyone. It maintains high quality, reduceds taxpayer cost, and rewards good environmental stewardship. Also, it helps qualify for LEED projects.
If you're going green this year or anytime soon, go green with paving as well...the most recycled product in the U.S.