Paving
Recycling of tires in asphalt pavement is an idea that has proven as resilient as rubber itself. Yet in the approximately 50 years since first being tried, the idea has failed to revolutionize the United States paving industry.
That could change.
New technology and old concerns about the environment seem to be re-energizing the rubber asphalt revolution.
The primary obstacles to more widespread reuse of tires in asphalt have been relatively high cost and uniform testing processes that tend to work against rubber asphalt while standards for highway projects are set.
These fundamental barriers to acceptance have been offset to some extent by repeated demonstrations in the United States and abroad that rubber asphalt holds up well under heavy traffic and absorbs the weight of passing vehicles in a way that reduces freeway noise. And the indisputable advantage of rubber asphalt is that it recycles tires that otherwise are piling up in landfills and ditches.
Federal and state environmental agencies are on the side of anyone wanting to reuse tires in new pavement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promotes the concept in the Resource Conservation Challenge section of its Web site. Noting that rubber asphalt is the single biggest user of crumb rubber (12 million tires a year), the agency lists the benefits of the rubberized asphalt - “longer lasting road surfaces, reduced road maintenance, cost effectiveness over the long term, lower road noise and shorter braking distances.”