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Did you know you could recycle asphalt? Longwood does!

Innovative and sustainable practices guide us in everything we do. We gather and compost all organic materials, including food residuals from our Terrace Restaurant, resulting in over 5,500 cubic yards of soil amendments and mulches used throughout the Gardens. We seek to outsource recycled materials for our events, our marketing materials as well as green-certified cleaning and bathroom products. Our recycling program covers all paper, cardboard, glass, and plastics (#1-7) and runs through our entire operations.

But did you know that we even recycle asphalt?

“Many people don’t know this, but here at Longwood Gardens we collect asphalt that we grind down from construction work and bring it to a local asphalt recycling facility,” says Facilities Manager Gregg Ehrhardt.

Ehrhardt says Longwood recycles, on average, between 5-10 tons of asphalt per year. “For about two years now we save and collect all unused or broken up asphalt in a designated area behind our Facilities building on Longwood’s property. Once we have enough for a recycling delivery, we pack it all in a dump truck, and take it over,” says Ehrhardt.

Once the unused asphalt is delivered to the recycling center it is broken down and re-introduced into a new asphalt mix. “Unfortunately this kind of asphalt, which is called Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), is ideal for major highways and major road ways, so we’re unable to re-purchase the recycled asphalt to re-use again at Longwood,” says Ehrhardt.

Although we don’t use RAP at Longwood Gardens, Ehrhardt says he thinks this process of saving unwanted asphalt for recycling is helping us become more green and sustainable than we ever have before. “One of my co-workers who does our recycling deliveries was actually the person that really got us turned on to investigating where we could recycle asphalt—with sustainability in the forefront of everything we do, everyone at Longwood Gardens is always looking for ways for us to implement best practices,” says Ehrhardt.