Recycled asphalt pavement is the single largest recycled material in the United States, approximately 800 million tons are recycled every year!
Asphalt is 100% recyclable, by recycling this valuable material, resources are conserved. It can be used in multiple different areas to replace conventional products such as stone, sand, or gravel. The advantage to using RAP is it still contains the asphalt cement that was added when the product was originally made. RAP tends to develop a harder surface than gravel due to the renaining asphalt cement. This will lead to less maintenance than a stone or gravel surface and will have far less dust generated from traffic,
RAP is also used in new asphalt pavements. Utilizing RAP in some instances reduces new materials needed by 35%. The asphalt cement is recovered in the RAP, so the amount of virgin asphalt cement added to make the mix is less than if no RAP were used.
Fun Fact: In 1998 Pitlik & Wick was the first company is Wisconsin to successfully pave a Wisconsin DOT Superpave project with 20% RAP in the mix.
