[maicro]

Fair point, and I don't have enough background to really answer that. I'll look for any information on "reclamation" rates of asphalt - there's got to be some amount that's just lost in general (ground up into fine particles that blow away, fall into drainage systems, etc.), and places where it's just not reasonable to tear it up to bring to a recycler vs. dump it somewhere convenient, but it does _sound_ like they are pretty good about reclaiming and recycling it.

The next chunk in the abstract I quoted is:

"The average percentage of RAP used in asphalt mixtures has increased from 15.6 percent in 2009 to 21.1 percent in 2019. In 2019, the estimated RAP tonnage used in asphalt mixtures was 89.2 million tons. This represents 4.5 million tons (24 million barrels) of asphalt binder conserved, along with the replacement of more than 84 million tons of virgin aggregate."

That gives some context as to how much is actually being reused.