Could Plastic Roads Help Our Garbage Problem?

The idea isn’t exactly brand new as scientists have experimented for several decades to find a way to use waste plastics in the construction of roads, but it’s one that appears to have gained some momentum. Like any new proposal involving the usage of waste materials, the idea of plastic roads also has its detractors as well as its proponents.

In one sense of the phrase, plastic roads are a misnomer as the more widely supported technology developed by Scottish engineer Toby McCartney uses a mixture of recycled plastic pellets to replace bitumen, the binding agent used in asphalt paving, to create stronger roads that are, in theory, less impervious to breakdown. McCartney’s idea is based on a process developed by Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a chemistry professor at Thiagarajar College of Engineering in southern India.

A Possible Answer to Two Problems?

McCartney says his plastic waste mixture will help ease the problem of discarded plastics littering the environment, while also making road repairs and brand new roadways stronger. His tests show that the when the pellets are mixed in with asphalt, the resulting mixture is 60 percent stronger than that of conventional asphalt roads. The plastic binding agent is also less expensive than traditional bitumen, making it an attractive alternative in the eyes of government loking to save money.
India began experimenting with plastic roads at the beginning of this century and in 2015, the country’s road ministry made it mandatory to construct new roads in urban areas with Vasudevan’s plastic mixture. Approximately 100,000 kilometers of roads across the country have been paved with the plastic polymer asphalt. Some local authorities have ignored the guideline by saying it doesn’t apply to them.

In the meantime, McCartney’s startup business, MacRebur Plastic Roads Company, has provided plastic pellets for roads in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and some areas in the Middle East. he has also persuaded at least two local councils in the United Kingdom to replace their future road construction with his mixture.

Another Alternative

The Netherlands, one of the world’s most environmentally-friendly countries, has its own version of plastic roads. VolkerWessels has developed a plastic roadway made entirely out of recycled plastic that will be installed in some sections of Rotterdam. This roadway, however, is about three percent more expensive than traditional asphalt. However, because it is manufactured in sections and brought to the construction site, this technology has the potentional for shortening construction time and disruption to traffic.

Potential Drawbacks

As this technology is still relatively new, no one really knows how long plastic roads will last when exposed not ony to the environmental conditions but also the daily wear and tear of vehicles. Detractors also say that melting the plastics releases additional toxins into the environment and that the potentional exists for toxins to leach into the soil from the roadways themselves. Finally, while the use of plastics in roadways can effectively make some communities zero waste to landfill, the use of recycled plastic doesn’t address the ever-increasing product of plastics in society as a whole.