Construction Company Plansto Make Roads From Recycled Plastic 1 From 4

 

Dutch city could be first to pave its streets with recycled plastic bottles, a surface claimed to be greener, quicker to lay and more reliable than asphalt.

The Netherlands could become the first country to pave its streets with plastic bottles after Rotterdam city council said it was considering piloting a new type of road surface touted by its creators as a greener alternative to asphalt.

The construction firm Volker Wessels unveiled plans on Friday for a surface made entirely from recycled plastic, which it said required less maintenance than asphalt and could withstand greater extremes of temperature- between -40C and 80C.

Roads could be laid in a matter of weeks rather than months and last about three times as long, it claimed.

The company said the environmental argument was also strong as asphalt is responsible for 1.6m tons of C02 emissions a year globally – 2% of all road transport emissions.

Rolf Mars, the director of Volker Wessels’ roads subdivision, KWS Infra, said: “Plastic offers all kinds of advantages compared to current road construction, both in laying the roads and maintenance.”

The plastic roads are lighter, reducing the Load on the ground, and hol1ow, making it easier to install cables and utility pipelines below the surface.

Sections can be prefabricated in a factory and transported to where they are needed, reducing on-site construction, while the shorter construction time and low maintenance will mean less congestion caused by road works.

Lighter materials can also be transported more efficiently.

Mars said the Plastic Road project was still at the conceptual stage, but the company hopes to be able to put down the first fully recycled thoroughfare within three years.