Asphalt pavement is unquestionably the nation's most widely recycled product.
According to a American survey, a possible misconception is the extent to which the recycling of consumer goods occurs. The EPA says Americans recycle only 28 percent of the materials in the municipal solid waste stream. The EPA says that of the 217 million tons of solid waste generated in 1997, the latest year for which figures are available, we recycled 60.7 million tons of paper and paperboard, yard trimmings, glass, metal, plastic and other materials.
Thus, the 80.3 million-ton volume of recycled asphalt pavement is approximately one-third higher than the total volume of 60.7 million tons of post-consumer recycling. And it's double the volume of paper, glass, plastic and aluminum combined.
Thus we can clearly see that the asphalt pavement is playing more and more important role on the pavement construction.
