Asphalt pavements are essential to modern transport infrastructure but remain highly dependent on virgin aggregates and petroleum-based binders, resulting in high energy demand and significant greenhouse gas emissions. In response, research has advanced recycled-material solutions and low-temperature asphalt technologies. However, sustainability is still often inferred from isolated environmental indicators, without consistent consideration of mechanical durability or economic feasibility throughout the life cycle. This review provides an integrated synthesis of sustainable asphalt mixtures by jointly examining recycling strategies, temperature-reduction processes (warm-mix, half-warm-mix, and cold-mix asphalt technologies), and their combined applications through an integrated performance–cost–environment perspective. The literature reveals substantial methodological fragmentation, with limited harmonisation of functional units, system boundaries, and allocation rules, which constrains cross-study comparability. Evidence indicates that reclaimed asphalt, recycled concrete aggregates, and steel slag can maintain or improve rutting resistance, stiffness, and moisture durability while enabling material cost savings of approximately 5–68%. Temperature-reduction technologies further achieve significant energy and GHG reductions in the production phase (20–70%), with integrated recycling–temperature-reduction systems showing the most consistent combined benefits. Overall, this review demonstrates that asphalt sustainability cannot be established through single-dimensional assessments but requires harmonised life-cycle frameworks that explicitly link environmental gains to mechanical performance, durability, and economic viability.
Moura et al. (Fri,) studied this question.