When you’re looking to pave a driveway, parking lot, or other surface areas, you may hear of asphalt millings. Millings are recycled asphalt pavement ground into small pieces. Contractors sometimes use millings as an alternative to fresh asphalt or gravel, but they give a different result than newly laid asphalt. Let’s take a closer look at millings and whether they might be the right choice for your paving project.
What Are Asphalt Millings?
Asphalt millings are recycled asphalt pavement. Perhaps the asphalt came from your grocery store’s parking lot or a neighbor’s used driveway. Once workers remove an old asphalt surface, they take it to a processing facility.
Workers remove asphalt pavement by milling or full-depth removal. Milling entails the removal of the pavement surface using a milling machine, which can remove up to 2 inches in thickness in a single pass. Full-depth removal involves ripping and breaking the pavement using a rhino horn on a bulldozer or pneumatic pavement breakers.
But what happens to recycled asphalt pavement after removal?
How Does the Asphalt Milling Process Work?
In most instances, the broken material is picked up, loaded into haul trucks, and transported to a central facility for processing. The central facility processes the broken pavement material by crushing, screening, conveying, and stacking. (1)
After the facility grinds the asphalt into small pieces, they sell it as millings or milled asphalt.
Reprocessed pavement materials, also called reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), contain asphalt and aggregates. When properly crushed and screened, RAP consists of high-quality, well-graded aggregates coated by asphalt cement. (2)
Government road projects that use RAP as paving material often have two goals: saving money and recycling materials. Millings have a lower cost than fresh asphalt, so government agencies can save money using them for roads.
Millings (RAP) also allow agencies to reuse materials that would otherwise go to waste. In this way, millings can help save taxpayers’ money.
Do Millings Help the Environment?
The fact is the asphalt mix your contractor uses to create a “new” asphalt project already contains recycled asphalt. So there is no need to use millings over regular asphalt!
The United States, according to the latest figures from NAPA, almost entirely recycles our used asphalt pavement. In 2018, the US asphalt industry reused more than 99% of our country’s available recycled asphalt product!
97% of that recycled asphalt went into the hot mix contractors use in their “new” asphalt projects across the country.
Consequently, the average quantity of RAP put into landfills was almost zero in 2018! Producers reported landfilling only about 0.012% (1) (2)
So if you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint, millings are not the only environmentally friendly solution. You can be eco-friendly by hiring a local contractor to create a “new” asphalt driveway or parking lot.
What Does Recycled Asphalt Pavement Look Like?
Asphalt contractors can use millings in place of fresh asphalt or gravel in many different paving projects. However, millings have different properties than fresh asphalt. And they do not provide the same smooth surface or the distinct jet-black color of new asphalt.
A driveway or parking lot made of millings will look lumpy and coarse due to the lack of binder and other paving materials in a hot mix asphalt.
Traditional paving materials like stone gravel or traditional gravel compare roughly to a driveway made of millings, but millings bind together more than gravel. The only issue with millings instead of gravel is that you may track in black bits of asphalt millings wherever you go!
Are Asphalt Millings the Right Choice for Your Project?
Asphalt millings have many of the same characteristics as other paving materials, like fresh asphalt or gravel, but with different properties.
One disadvantage of using millings is that they don’t bind together as well as fresh asphalt. The lack of binding may cause the millings to erode more easily. You can end up with milling debris in your landscaping over time.
Traditional asphalt pavement laying uses a hot mix for paved asphalt containing binders and aggregates that stay together better.
Many homeowners would rather invest in the durable material of a hot asphalt mix rather than using a crushed asphalt material. For several reasons, a “new” asphalt driveway or parking lot is a better choice. You’ll get a smoother surface and the distinctive black color of new asphalt while still using recycled materials.
New asphalt driveways are also easier to clean and maintain than recycled asphalt. New asphalt is less prone to erosion, so it holds up better over time.
When it comes to your asphalt driveway or parking lot, you have many choices. Weigh the pros and cons of each option to decide what’s best for you.
We Can Help
At AMP Paving, consider the smooth feel of a new blacktop asphalt surface if you’re looking for an environmentally friendly paving solution. Our top-notch team can work with you to design and create your next project with all the advantages you’re looking for. Get in touch if your property needs a transportation upgrade that can last for decades.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about how asphalt can be eco-friendly. Contact us today for a free quote.