Recycle plastic trash on road pavement?

Although it is widely used around the world, it is difficult to recycle it completely, so it is plastic that contributes to environmental pollution. As one of the ways to reduce plastic waste, companies that pave roads by mixing plastic waste with asphalt are emerging.

Scottish company Macrebur aims to further strengthen asphalt pavement while reducing waste by using plastic waste along with asphalt. Using the company’s technology, 10 tons of plastic waste can be used to recycle 8,571 disposable plastic bags and reduce 91.8 kg of carbon dioxide emissions.

Mac River is targeting a business scale expansion in the US and has reviewed the plan to build a 1,900m ² plant site area weekly. Each factory employs at least 8-12 people, and it is said that the number of employees may increase further depending on performance. Currently, the possibility of constructing a McRiver plant in Tricity, Washington is being discussed.

Toby McCartney, CEO of McRiver, has developed a special process that converts some of the material that binds to the piece of plastic asphalt into small chips that can be replaced, and uses it to pave the road from plastic waste to reinforced asphalt. He says he is in charge of paving roads in Australia, New Zealand, across Europe, Turkey, South Africa, and Canada. He emphasized that the world can make roads out of plastic waste.

McRiver said it opened its first U.S. plant in San Diego and is also working to add the product to the list of products approved by the Washington State Department of Transportation. So in the near future, it is possible that asphalt roads will be completed somewhere in Washington.

However, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it would take time and testing to add MacRiver asphalt to certified products, and McRiver said it wasn’t fast enough to get approval. In any case, small chips that are mixed with asphalt made from scrap plastic waste to increase strength can replace about 20% of bitumen used in asphalt. It is said that this design was completed after 500 to 600 trials.

Although city and state levels have not yet granted permission to use plastic-blended McRiver asphalt, the company’s plastic waste asphalt can be used in parking lots, driveways and other pavements without problems. In addition, it is said that it cannot release harmful substances because microplastics do not flow out of asphalt mixed with long pieces of plastic. Related information can be found here .