LICA & Brookhaven Town to Seek New Standards for "Green" Asphalt That Recycles Blacktop and Reduces Taxpayers' Burden

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, April 20th at 10:30 a.m. at Glenmere Lane, and Route 112, Coram, (LIE Exit 64) against a moonscape of potholes, the Long Island Contractors' Association (LICA) and Brookhaven Town Highway Superintendent John Rouse will call for a sweeping revision of municipal regulations that would permit the use of recycled asphalt materials to help the environment while driving down the taxpayers' cost to repair the historically high number of potholes suffered by the region this spring.

Paving experts will be surrounded by highway equipment, potholes to be filled and examples of standard asphalt versus recycled asphalt whose use would aid in making Long Island roadways that much greener.

LICA Executive Director Marc Herbst will state that current regulations prevent the widespread use of recycled asphalt and reflect an arbitrary standard first imposed when recycling was not encouraged. "It's as if you had a law on the books that said you couldn't recycle plastic bags or glass bottles.  Current asphalt recycling specifications were written in the middle of the 20th Century when no one cared about carbon footprints, the cost of a barrel of oil or the responsibility we have to recycle everywhere we can."

SOURCE Long Island Contractors' Association (LICA)