Reduce carbon emissions and stop plastics going into landfill, incinerator or the ocean, by making it mandatory for all major new Australian Federal road development initiatives to include the soft plastic recycling technology.
Similar projects are taking place around the world. The chemicals firm Dow has been implementing projects using polyethylene-rich recycled plastics in the US and Asia Pacific. The first in the UK was built in Scotland in 2019 by the plastic road builder MacRebur, which has laid plastic roads from Slovakia to South Africa.
MacRebur has found that incorporating plastic improves roads' flexibility, helping them cope better with expansion and contraction due to temperature changes, leading to fewer potholes – and where potholes do happen,
The technology has already been applied in Australia. Case study taken from Australian Gov website;
https://www.environment.gov.au/about-us/partnerships/case-studies/australia-first-road-built-soft-plastics
Downer partnered very closely with Close the Loop and RED Group to innovatively tailor waste products such as soft plastics to suit a road construction application. By working collaboratively with RED Group, Downer was able to improve the way they design and manufacture sustainable outcomes for waste that has meaningful uses.
Sustainability Victoria supported Close the Loop and Downer with more than $100,000 to develop specialist equipment and help with trial costs.
Soft plastics from approximately 200,000 plastic bags and packaging, 63,000 glass bottle equivalents, toner from 4,500 used printer cartridges and 50 tonnes of recycled asphalt were used to build the road in Craigieburn, located in Melbourne’s north.
Together with their customer Hume City Council and partners, Downer have helped to set a new benchmark in the industry when it comes to sustainability, by creating new avenues to recycle and repurpose waste materials into new streams of use. The sustainable, cost-competitive road has a 65 per cent improvement in fatigue life and a superior resistance to deformation making the road last longer and allowing it to better handle heavy vehicle traffic.
This case study shows that partnering with other thought leaders can create economic, social and environmental value for products that would more than likely end up in landfill, stockpiled, or as a pollutant in our natural environments.
infrastructure projects by M McCorkmack; https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/mccormack
