U.K. Testing Cheaper and Longer-Lasting Roads Made From Recycled Plastics

By: | May 22nd, 2017

Image courtesy wikimedia.org

Did you know that the transport sector attributes to 23% of the globe’s greenhouse gas emission? Earth has about 24.8 million miles of roads, and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil have been used to develop these roads.

Now a Scotland-based startup called MacRebur has come up with a brilliant idea to develop sustainable roads. Engineer Toby McCartney from the UK devised a product called MR6 that incorporates recycled plastic and other wastes in making roads.

These roads are about 60% stronger and around 10 times longer-lasting than normal asphalt-based roads. Not only this, but these roads will also check the waste of natural resources and the growing plastic pollution problem.

McCartney said, “We take waste plastic that is destined for landfill sites and recycle it. What we’re able to do is to take this plastic that has been thrown away, and use a special formula to clean it off, create pellets using it, and then use those pellets to add to a mixture of rocks and bitumen to make longer-lasting roads.”

The first MR6 road was McCartney’s own driveway. Now, the latest MR6 project is being worked on the road in Cumbria County in the United Kingdom.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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