Plastic roads: an ingenious solution to two of humanity’s urgent problems

Judging by the emerging trend, humanity will soon be able to solve the problem of hated plastic waste and improve the quality of road surfaces. A growing number of countries are using unnecessary plastic for paving, and these technologies are finding more and more adherents around the world.

One of the first who began to use plastic waste as a building material was the road services of India. For several years, the development of local engineers, which involves the use of shredded plastic waste, has been successfully applied in this country. And if for ecologists, public utilities workers and the overwhelming majority of people, plastic is a waste, but for Indian road workers, plastic turned out to be an excellent building material, with which more than 100 thousand kilometers of roads have already been laid. Its use along with bitumen allows you to make asphalt more durable, and the recycling of plastic itself is an undoubted plus for the environment.

As it turned out, plastic technologies in road construction are suitable not only for the southern regions. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, have also adopted a practical way of recycling plastic waste. For example, Scottish scientists have developed a technology in which up to 20% of traditional bitumen is replaced with plastic waste, and the roads built have more durability. In addition, the economic component wins significantly: plastic waste is much cheaper than bitumen.

And experts from the Netherlands went even further. They decided to create a modular road, which will consist entirely of plastic waste. Under such a pavement, it will be possible to lay wires and other communications without unnecessary costs, it will be durable and, most importantly, it will help to cope with the problem of plastic waste. While the project is still under development, the testing of a new roadbed will take place in the near future.