In 1990, New York City began recycling waste glass into street pavement. 5 years later, the city had reused 250,000 tons of glass in resurfacing projects across the city

New York City had the most aggressive waste-glass paving program described in research into recycled materials for road construction.

Between 1990 and 1995, the New York City Department of Transportation used approximately 225,000 metric tonnes, or 250,000 tons, of waste glass in resurfacing applications. The use of waste glass followed years of research and field demonstrations examining whether crushed glass could replace conventional aggregate in asphalt pavement.