99 Bottles Of Beer On The Pavement -- On Second Thought, Probably A Lot More Than That!

One of the most unfortunate sights in urban areas is when you see broken beer bottles and random bits of glass littering the streets -- aside from being a hazard to pedestrians and wildlife, the shards can easily impale tires and make anyone pound their fists in anger.

The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois has challenged that notion by paving the 1,440-square-foot pathway leading to their Thornhill Education Center with a bazillion tiny pieces of pulverized beer bottles.

Utilizing entirely landfill-rescued glass and bits of granite, the very low maintainence, eco-friendly FilterPave road covering that they used is bound together only with tinted polyurethane (if you were wondering, they chose the amber tone) and lasts an estimated 16 years.

The glass mixture is not only shimmery, but remarkably breathable, allowing wintertime snow to melt very quickly and all forms of precipitation to filter through the road and back into the water aquifer rather than funneling into sewer systems.

At just $10 to $12 per square foot installed, it is comparable to conventional brick paving in cost but is clearly more beneficial to the environment and an extra plus is that rather than reflecting heat, FilterPave mitigates it.

I look forward to the day that our roads are paved with a lot more rescued landfill glass!