This is an excerpt from a presentation made by H. Fred Waller for the Asphalt Institute at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the International Erosion Control Association in Atlanta, Georgia. Although the primary use of asphalt has always been in highway and airfield pavement mixtures, there are many other uses for this versatile material. These uses include water treatment basins, aeration basins, fish breeding ponds, water storage basins, liners and caps for sanitary landfills, sludge beds and asphalt mulching.
Asphalt emulsified in water with an emulsifier makes an excellent mulching agent.
In some instances the emulsifying agent contains a stabilizer. It will hold a slurry containing mulch, seed, fertilizer and water in place until the seed can germinate. When applied in field situations, the water evaporates from the emulsion, leaving the residual asphalt. There are two ways of using emulsified asphalt for mulching. One is to apply the asphalt alone, in a spray film, on the seeded areas.