Asphalt as the Sustainable Material to Keep the Air Clean

Paving driveways, pathways, or road is not an easy task. The contractor need to make plan including the cost they will spend on the materials and the whole process of installing it. For a few contractor,they may take further note of the impact of the road or pathways or driveways the make on the environment. They need to choose the best materials and the best installment process which has really low bad effect on the environment. One of the materials that is sustainable is asphalt. Asphalt has low consumption of energy for its production and construction, and low emission of greenhouse gases. This material also has a contribution in conserving the natural resources and on keeping water quality.It is also one of the pavement that make least noise. Among all the good things about asphalt pavement, there is one that seems urgently needed for the environment today which is its low emission.

Asphalt

Asphalt is widely known as one of pavement materials that has very low and well-controlled emissions (including greenhouse gases). Because of that reason, EPA considers them as only minor sources of industrial pollution. Moreover, the construction of an asphalt road has really lower chance of materials to fly around in the air compared to the construction of road using other materials. Even when an asphalt road is reconstructed, the process will not take a long time which is able to minimize the consumption of fuel by cars and other vehicles on the road that are jammed at the traffic. Asphalt’s speed of construction will prevent cars and other vehicles on the road mired in congestion that the fuel they consume may contribute to the greenhouse gases emitted to the air.

Asphalt is also acknowledged to be durable which resulting in the minimum needs to reconstruct it. The only thing in maintaining an asphalt road is by removing only the top layer of it, then recycle (or widely known as rubblized)the worn-out concrete and make it as a new road base, and the last step is layering the asphalt road. Asphalt road does not need total removal and total reconstruction which is also the good thing about it. If a road is reconstructed, it is just the same as constructing a new road base which will lead to more emission that is emitted to the air. The emissions could be from boiling the materials before applied, from the trucks that is hauling the materials in and out from the construction area, and could be from any process of the construction. The whole process of installing and maintaining an asphalt road is considered as a sustainable construction process.

The good things about asphalt does not stop there. Light-coloured asphalt is able to help to mitigate the urban heat island effect. This will result in the decrease of the heat emitted to the atmosphere which is not only able to harm the atmosphere layer but also to make the air (weather) feels cooler.

Learning from all the good things about asphalt, maybe it is the right time to change the road to the asphalt one.

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