UKH

I have heard of a few projects over recent years where plastic is being used in roads, but it sounds like it is starting to gather momentum, which is great!

I could make a fortune collecting plastic waste when I am out and about and sell it to road builders! 😃

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210302-could-plastic-roads-make-for-a-...

It sounds a great idea in principle, but isn't one of the main issues with plastic that it breaks down into 'microplastics', which do the major environmental damage? 

I would have thought that abrasion from tyres, which in itself generates rubber particulates, might be an issue. If that's not the case then it sounds a really good idea.

Third image down in that piece looks a lot like the A835 at the Dirrie More. Not sure that's been resurfaced with this technology.

Sounds positive on the face of it, provided it doesn't increase rather than decrease the demand for plastics production. In an ideal world, waste plastic should be a diminishing resource.

No good can come from expanding the range of plastic use, not mention the risk of it leeching into even more environments. Psychologically it will imply to many that continued plastics use is ok as we now have an alternative use for the waste. 

The article does talk about microplastics and it seems to suggest that they can put a filtering layer in to catch them. It seems that our biggest micro plastic problem on the roads is still tyres and brakes, and who knows how we solve that one!

Yes, the worry of people then thinking that plastic waste is no longer an issue, is an issue!! I guess there needs to be massive taxation or other disincentives to new plastic production. But we have more than enough rejected plastic already on the planet, already leaching microplastics, that we should be using that for something constructive and reducing the use of other materials going into roads too.

Why not use it for parking areas and car parks? Lower speed so less wear & tear so less risk of micro plastics leaking into environment?? Maybe?

Well that’s just greedy on top of the fortune you are going to make operating climbing walls at airports! 

Yes, that would be a good idea, but it's not going to use a significant amount of plastic. 

From what I have read, it sounds like plastic roads are more wear resistant than normal roads, so environmentally the actual roads might actually have a better impact as they won't need redone as often. 

In the long run, the biggest impact we can have is reducing road use! Fewer cars is the only real answer, but if plastics in roads do help to reduce environmental impact a little and gives somewhere for plastics to go other than landfill, then that has to be a good step.

I have thought about this before - could you bulk recycling waste plastic into road or building foundations for example, but I guess the issue is to scale up any sort of processing would require investment, and that investment, to be paid off would require a continual stream of materials over the next number of years (whereas really the aim is to kill off that supply).

I am hoping consume demand will eventually win here, our household has made a big effort to reduce single use plastic - we have removed it from soap, hand lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, mouthwash, tea bags, milk (mostly), fruit and vegetables, nuts/seeds, rice/pasta, shopping bags, no clingfilm (bees wax instead) and prob a few other things as well. Annoying that plastic free salad items seem to still be hard to come by, I think the world is still crying out for a natural compostable packaging material that is "like" plastic for say 3-4 weeks...

The article describes a process where the plastic is melted on top of the hard core and bitumen is then added on top so the plastic lies under the surface of the road.

Sounds like a smart idea.

Any road will wear/erode. Will the particles of plastic wash into water courses and on to the sea? Could be exacerbating problems there.

Given the potholes round here that "under the surface" wouldnt be true for long.

I guess when most people think of plastic waste they think of plastic packaging waste as you describe. I agree that there should be efforts made to reduce plastic packaging, although much has already been done, and also develop alternative materials which have less environmental impact. The biggest problems are caused in developing countries which lack the processing technology and infrastructure that us rich first world folks possess.

Take a look around though and you will see you are surrounded by plastic and their mass is many times that of a piece of packaging. How many plastic wrappers would it take to make a traffic cone or a gutter? The device you are reading this on will be substantially composed of plastic, either thermoplastic or thermoset. In fact there are many objects/devices around today that would either be impossible to make without plastic or prohibitively expensive. For such things we really do need to improve on how we either recycle or dispose of them. Thinking again about the road idea, I wonder what happens when the road is resurfaced? Do we need to then find a safe way of disposing of the plastic coated gravel or is the plastic in a form that is safe to empty into a landfill site?

Here is a link to a UK study into the use of plastics in road building https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d41b34040f0b60a86a5e5dc/595... 

Some of the plastics they mention using are now attracting relatively high prices (HDPE and PET particularly) so wouldn't be cost effective at their current prices. 

I'd prefer to use it to make a plastic coffin for Dominic Cummings and his crew

till the road is dug up by incompetent subcontractors

There was a time when glass was incorporated into the road surface especially roundabouts with the yellow chevrons. But apparently it shredded tyres if you braked too hard!