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high as 80 ° C. The company says that this hardiness will make the roads’ lifespans three times as long as typical asphalt roads. According to the company, any type of recycled plastic can be used. The main goal, the company says, is to keep plastic out of the oceans. The concept for plastic roads came after the company looked at all the different road-related problems that cities face, said Simon Jorritsma from InfraLinq, a subdivision of VolkerWessels and KWS Infra that works specifically with asphalt. Those problems included a future where oil( the main component of asphalt) is less available, as well as more immediate problems like flooding and road maintenance.“ For contractors, asphalt is a great and sound product to build roads,” Jorritsma says.“ However, contractors have to meet more and more demands concerning noise reduction, water permeability, and flatness. These questions and conditions were the inspiration that have led to the idea of the‘ PlasticRoad’.” The company is also hoping to avoid some carbon dioxide emissions by switching asphalt roads to plastic ones. The carbon footprint of asphalt totals 1.6-million tons of carbon dioxide per year, the company says, so using recycled plastic instead could help cut down on some of those emissions. Jorritsma said that using plastic instead of asphalt would cut down on the carbon dioxide required to produce, transport, and process asphalt and, he says, because plastic roads are predicted to last longer than traditional roads, the CO 2 associated with regularly replacing the surfaces will also be saved. The concept is still in the idea phase— no plastic roads are being tested in the Netherlands yet, and the company says it still needs to test the idea in a lab to see how it performs under different conditions and whether it is safe to drive on when wet, for instance. But the city of Rotterdam said that it was considering serving as a pilot for the project. Jorritsma says that if Rotterdam ends up deciding not to serve as a pilot, other cities have shown interest, so he doesn’ t think finding a site for road testing will be difficult. nn
References www. voanews. com – Researchers: Recycled concrete’ s time has come inhabitat. com – Plastic Concrete: Building bricks made from landfill waste www. plasticsouplab. org – Researchers have created concrete using plastic waste thinkprogress. org – Netherlands company introduces plastic roads that are more durable, climate friendly than asphalt