SYDNEY Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Construction of a 250-meter stretch of road, made primarily out of recycled plastic bags, began in Australian State of New South Wales on Friday.
The section of the Old Princess Highway in Southern Sydney is the first of its kind in the state and will utilize a new material known as plastiphalt which turns plastic bags, glass bottles and used printer cartridges into drivable roadway.
The plastiphalt project is a joint effort between Australian companies Downer, Close the Loop, RED Group and Plastic Police.
Jim Appleby, general manager of Reconomy, a division of Downer, explained the process to Xinhua, "plastic is collected, basically intercepted from going into landfill, it's then processed and it's attached to other materials to form a special pellet which is then digested into asphalt," he said.
The section of street being laid on Friday used 220 tons of material, which previously had been 176,000 plastic bags, and 55,000 glass bottles.
Just as plastic doesn't degrade in the environment, the materials used to build the road can be dug up and used over again.
"Now it's in the road, in many years time when that road reaches its end of life it can be dug up and reused in its entirety," Appleby said.
Recently, there has been an increased effort to minimize Australia's plastic waste output by removing disposable bags from supermarkets and transforming recyclable waste into infrastructure such as roads, play areas and park benches.
With four billion bags being used in Australia each year, and most of that ending up in landfill, alternative solutions are in high demand.
