Did You Know? -The area of Charles Street north of the
Washinbgton Monument is a recycled road. In the early 1970’s
William Donald Schaefer developed a program of paving Baltimore
streets with a mix of recycled glass and asphalt. He reported
coming up with the idea after seeing “Glassphalt” used in
California. Local manufacturers provided the city with crushed
glass waste and the result was actually cheaper than standard
paving material. More streets were planned to be paved with
Glassphalt, but by the 1980’s paving companies put notable
pressure on city government and glass manufacturers found more
profitable ways to eliminate their glass waste and the program
was stopped. The recycled portion of Charles Street has far
exceeded the normal 20 year life span of regular paving and
Schaeffer states, "If I had to do it all over again, I'd do most
of the streets in the city of Baltimore with Glassphalt.” For
the full article of this summary of Charles Cohen’s article
written for the Baltimore Citypaper – CLICK HER