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Waste Management/Recycling

Recent Developments

• Caltrans Tests Use of Recycled Plastic Bottles to Repave Roadway

  The California Department of Transportation will use 100 percent recycled materials for a highway repaving project for the first time, including incorporation of liquid plastic made with single-use, plastic bottles. The pilot project, which uses recycled materials to repave a section of Highway 162 in Oroville, may be replicated on other projects throughout the state. For more information, link to the announcement. (7-30-20)

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• AASHTO Releases Earth Day Video on Recycling and Transportation

  In recognition of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is releasing a two-part series entitled Recycling, Transportation and You. Produced by Transportation TV, this series highlights how state departments of transportation play a major role in recycling asphalt pavement – long considered to be the most recycled product in America – as well as how old tires are broken down into small chunks and reused to make new asphalt pavement. To access the video, link here. (4-22-20)

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• Va. Study Assesses Increased Use of Reclaimed Asphalt

  A study from the Virginia Transportation Research Council looked at the efficacy of asphalt pavements with higher levels of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The study found that, in general, mixtures containing up to 45% RAP can be designed, produced, and constructed with proper procedures and attention to detail during design, production, and construction. The study found good results for high-RAP mixtures in laboratory and early field performance testing, but it called for additional monitoring for long-term performance. For more information, link to the report. (Oct. 2019)

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• NCHRP Report Evaluates Recycled Asphalt Shingles in Pavement Technologies

  Enhancing the performance of warm mix asphalt pavement that incorporates recycled asphalt shingles is the topic of a study issued under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The report, Using Recycled Asphalt Shingles with Warm Mix Asphalt Technologies (NCHRP Research Report 890), describes performance tests of warm mix asphalt with a variety of recycled content with regard to stiffness, durability, optimal temperatures, moisture susceptibility; and other parameters. The practical outcome of the project is a set of proposed revisions to AASHTO provisional standard PP 78-17 that expands its application to warm mix asphalt mixtures with recycled asphalt shingles. The research also produced a set of proposed best practices for the processing of recycled asphalt shingles. For more information, link to the report. (11-1-18)

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• Report Indicates Increased Interest in Recycling Concrete Pavements

  The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report concerning a 2016 survey of state highway agencies and paving contractors to understand applications, barriers, and existing opportunities for increasing the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). The report indicates that agencies and contractors are interested in increasing RCA use but there is a lack of knowledge on how to best make use of it in concrete mixtures. The report also indicates that restrictive specifications and complex permitting standards serve as barriers to increasing RCA use. Further policy development from the Federal Highway Administration, the American Concrete Pavement Association, and state DOTs is planned. For more information, link to the report. (January 2018)

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• Benefits, Costs of TAM Systems Reviewed in NCHRP Report

  An evaluation of systems to track transportation asset management (TAM) in terms of return on investment has been issued in a report under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP Research Report 866). The report, issued under NCHRP Project 20-100, provides objective approaches that can be used by transportation agencies to estimate the return on investment in TAM systems such as pavement management systems, bridge management systems, and maintenance management systems. Benefits of TAM systems, such as AASHTOWare Bridge Management software, include more proactive agency approaches to asset management, better prioritization, more robust analytical tools, and better data quality. The report includes an associated spreadsheet tool, the NCHRP Project 20-100 ROI Calculator. The calculator includes factors and procedures from the Highway Economic Requirements System State Version (HERS-ST), which can be used to perform life cycle analysis to reduce waste, prevent pollution, and encourage recycling. For more information, link to the report.

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