Change the way we pave our roads
I went to the Urban Heat Island workshop yesterday, which was very well attended (by city staff and members of the public alike) and had quite a few useful suggestions for how we all can do our own part to reduce global warming in our own backyard, and little tidbits like a list of trees that actually do emit ozone and help form smog–who knew Ronald Reagan had a soundbite right (albeit twisted)!
(For the curious, the list of polluting trees to avoid includes eucalyptus, weeping willow, oak and cottonwood. Use this cool website from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to select less hazardous trees by choosing “low” next to the feature “biogenic emissions” along with any other feature you want in a tree.)
But the solution I heard that most struck me was the use of rubber pellets from recycled tires for road paving. It turns out that paving in this way reduces the radiant heat that increases our air temperature, which is great. It produces less glare, which is great. It solves a problem on what to do with all those non-degradable used tires, which is also great. And as an added bonus, road noise (a major problem for those of us who live near major roads) is reduced dramatically.
It used to be assumed that paving with recycled rubber was more expensive that traditional asphalt, but now with rising costs of petroleum and other construction materials, the rubber paving is price competitive.
It’s time that we pave all our roads, particularly those in urban areas, with recycled rubber. As a member of the RTA Citizens Committee which will oversee all RTA projects after the May election, I will push for rubber paving throughout the region. We should act to require that the State, County and City transportation departments do the same on all road projects.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
This is excellent information! I have been looking at lists of native trees to plant on my place and now i can add to that trees that have low emissions. The recycled tires are being used for many purposes and by recycling the tires and putting them to good use, two purposes are served: the obvious - recycling and now you point out that they reduce the radiant heat and also they reduce the use of petrochemicals in asphalt. For almost ten years, these recycled tires have been made into mats that are used in horse stalls and also on cement floors in dog obedience training quarters where they provide superior cushioning for dogs who jump and are easy to keep clean!! I will need to redo my driveway and did not want to use asphalt - now, thanks to your column, i will look into using recycled tires!!!