How do you recycle road materials? This is how we do it!

• In 2007, MoDOT used more than three million tons of asphalt containing recycled material – about the weight of all the people in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Tennessee combined.

• From 2003 to 2007, the agency kept more than 3.6 billion pounds of waste from going to landfills. That’s equivalent to the amount of household waste generated in a year by the entire metropolitan St. Louis area.

• MoDOT has used enough recycled tires in its construction projects over the past two years to equip 20,000 cars.

• MoDOT used enough recycled shingles from 2003 to 2007 to roof 305 houses.

• MoDOT crews clean up more than 80,000 car tires – about 600 tons – that are left on state highways every year. These tires are ground up and used as fuel for power plants.

• In 2007, MoDOT resurfaced 80 miles of roadway using recycled coal cinders.

• About 70 percent of state highway signs are produced from reclaimed material, making the signs cheaper and faster to get. Using reclaimed materials on signs saved $714,000 in 2007.

• Each year, MoDOT recycles more than 7,000 light bulbs from traffic signals, street lights and office buildings - enough to light 155 homes.

• When striping Missouri’s highways, MoDOT uses 10 million pounds of recycled glass beads.