Recycled Trash To Be Used For Pasco Roads

SPRING HILL – It may seem like any other road in Pasco County, but the entry way into the solid waste facility is one actually built from trash.

“It’s been in done in Europe, for many years. It’s always been the desire for industry to do it in the United States as well,” said solid waste director John Power. After becoming the first in the nation to getting permitted, Pasco County is on the verge of using garbage ash to construct roads.

At the massive waste facility in Spring Hill, household trash is dropped off, and burned. The steam creates electricity. And mountains of ash are left behind. The ash is what we are using as an aggregate either in asphalt, concrete or we can use it as road base,” said Power.

Officials say using recycled garbage to build roads will save tax payers about $100,000 per mile. They’ve been testing it for a couple of years and found it holds up just fine and doesn’t cause any environmental concerns either.

Pasco County produces 200 tons of garbage ash every day. And the hope is to eventually use more than half of it to build roads. “Right now we need to start looking at which roads we can use it. We want to make sure that when we move forward we do it correctly,” said Power. Pasco’s officials have already heard from other counties including Hillsborough and Pinellas and people in the industry nationwide.

There’s a lot of interest in what’s planned for your trash.

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