British waste plastic road company MacRebur has worked with New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) to lay the first public roads in New York to be created using waste plastic.
The two roads, located on Rice Avenue and Royal Oak Road in Staten Island, form the first stages of a trial that sees otherwise unrecyclable plastics re-engineered into what MacRebur calls a “new, high quality, sustainable polymer”.
The new surfaces have saved over 7,331kg of CO2e in comparison to traditional asphalt and diverted the equivalent weight of 214,534 single-use plastic bottles from landfill, the company says.
Taking place over four days, MacRebur and NYC DOT have worked with asphalt producer City Asphalt to lay four different types of asphalt mix, using over 2,400 tonnes of asphalt.
Whilst the first mix contains solely traditional asphalt, the remaining three each consist of asphalt mixed with a percentage of MacRebur’s waste plastic additive, which replaces part of the bitumen binder.
The trial sections will now be tested and monitored to measure performance against traditional asphalt by Dr Thomas Bennert at Rutgers University – one of the leading US universities in asphalt research and testing, with results expected before the end of the year.
Whilst trials sections such as these typically taking up to three years from start to finish, we have worked together to begin trials within just four months – with a long-term goal of utilising local waste for local roads
Roddy McEwen, international business officer at MacRebur, said: “Having worked with the team at NYC DOT for just over a year, it’s refreshing to see such enthusiasm about new technology and products for use in asphalt.
“Whilst trials sections such as these typically taking up to three years from start to finish, we have worked together to begin trials within just four months – with a long-term goal of utilising local waste for local roads.”
Producing and laying 1.1 million tonnes of asphalt each year, NYC DOT is one of the United States’ leaders in using Recycling Asphalt Pavement, and typically uses 40% in every mix.
Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC DOT commissioner, said: “Using recycled plastic waste has the potential to solve our growing plastic waste problem and improve the quality of our streets by cutting carbon emissions and reducing potholes.
“We are excited to partner with MacRebur on this promising pilot and look forward to monitoring how its asphalt mix performs in New York City weather.”
Matthew Cruz, general manager at City Asphalt, added: “When NYC DOT advised us of the trial using waste plastic in asphalt, we were initially reluctant as we hadn’t had much experience with the introduction of new products into our new Gencor plant.
“However, as we researched the product and had the opportunity to discuss with other asphalt plant operators, our reluctance turned to curiosity and excitement. The opportunity to address a major environmental concern seemed too good to be true.”