Every time you drive over a stretch of the Illinois highway system, there's a good chance you're driving over waste from a coal plant. Yes, that sounds odd, but it's true; that's documented. According to the Illinois Department of Transportation's 2011 Physical Research Report No. 158, Illinois used 38,881 tons of fly ash in road construction in 2009 alone, at a cost of about $1.75 million to the department. That's a state agency finding a way to use a waste byproduct of a power plant instead of sending it to a landfill or mining new material to make cement.
What fly ash actually is, and why it ends up in your commute
