3rd Annual Asphalt Pavement Industry Survey on Recycled Materials and Warm-Mix Asphalt Usage

The FHWA/NAPA industry survey first began in 2010 and was repeated in 2011. In order to continue to track the use of these technologies, FHWA again partnered with NAPA to conduct a similar survey of RAP, RAS, and WMA use for 2012. This report documents the results of the 2012 industry survey, including the survey methodology, results, trends, and changes from 2009 through 2012.

Highlight features & benefits

• Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement: About 98 percent of the contractors/branches reported using RAP in 2012, the same as in 2011. The amount of RAP used in asphalt mixtures was 68.3 million tons in 2012, a 22.0 percent increase over the tons used in 2009 (56 million tons) and over a 2 percent increase over the tons used in 2011 (66.7 million tons). However total asphalt tonnage was down from 2011 to 2012, so in term of percent of total tonnage there was a 4 percent increase in the use of RAP from 2011 to 2012. Assuming 5 percent liquid asphalt in RAP, this represents over 3.4 million tons (19 million barrels) of asphalt binder conserved. Similar to 2010 and 2011, less than a 0.3 percent of RAP was sent to landfills
  Reclaimed Asphalt Shingles: Use of both manufacturers’ scrap and post-consumer shingles increased from nearly 1.2 million tons in 2011 to nearly 1.9 million tons in 2012, a 56 percent increase. Assuming a conservative asphalt content of 20 percent for the RAS, this represents 380,000 tons (2.2 million barrels) of asphalt binder conserved.
• Warm-Mix Asphalt Technologies: Total tonnage of WMA is estimated at 86.7 million tons in 2012. This was over a 26 percent increase over 2012 WMA tonnage (68.7 million tons). In 2012, WMA was about 24 percent of the total asphalt mixture market.
  Plant foaming is used most often in producing WMA, with more than 88 percent of the market; additives accounted for about 12 percent of the market.