Being part of this development fits Wavins strategy of providing innovative plastics solutions to the construction industry, says Jan-Willem Viets, country director, Wavin Netherlands and Belgium. Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Des Moines. The PlasticRoad concept consists of prefabricated, modular and hollow road structures made from recycled plastic. Some recycled plastics are added to black tarry asphalt before the aggregate to enhance the performance of the asphalt, and some are added with the aggregate and the milled pavement to act as a binding agent for the gravel and sand. (Photo Courtesy of MacRebur). In traditional asphalt, a mixture of gravel, sand and other fillers are bound together by a petroleum-based hydrocarbon called bitumen. The stripped-back road structure also simplifies maintenance tasks, such as renewing foundations and replacing pipes, as the prefabricated parts make it easier to access the road, Koudstaal says. The Scottish start-up MacRebur launched in 2016 with their system, inspired by seeing plastic waste in some Asian countries. KWSis the market leader in road construction and the production of asphalt in the Netherlands. In fact, at the end of their life, our roads can be recycled so the plastic waste is used over and over again.. How can we better manage our water systems? Once all the data is analyzed, then VDOT can make a decision about incorporating MacReburs product on a regular basis but thats a long way off.

How do we make cities more livable, lovable, and resilient? How do we push beyond sustainability to regeneration? Once the plastics are separated and pressed into pellets, they can be mixed with hot asphalt to create the RPM asphalt binder. Its important to realize that there are several methods used to repurpose recycled plastic into roadways, and theyre not all created equal. The diverse initiatives in this space can cross-pollinate. How can we build more sustainable roads? Sensors now further optimize the pilot roads in Zwolle and Giethoorn. The new asphalt material is then placed on the top surface of the roadway, eliminating the need for trucks to bring in outside material for a paving operation. PlasticRoad is yes a road made from plastic. model of local plastic recycling from waste toroads 54% of plastics are still incinerated or dumped in landfills, and only 14% of plastic waste is recycled. VPM ; in a second, the company was selected to participate in the Plastics Research in Action program alongside Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and petroleum development company Inter Pipeline, with its waxes being evaluated in asphalt paving test strips in Strathcona and Sturgeon counties in Alberta. But where modified asphaltswere previously made from virgin polymers, and sometimes crumb rubber (ground tires), now the idea is to use recycled polymers. Only 3 million of them were recycled, Habbouche said.

Over time, it needs to be replaced, and every driver has suffered through the result: traffic gridlock as departments of transportation using milling machines laboriously take up the old pavement while pouring fresh asphalt concrete. Project Infusion is a large-scale system of computing solutions that can be implemented worldwide in developing nations. This Ecosystemshowshow collaborative intelligencein human innovation enables continuous improvement. The hollow space can be used to temporarily store water (preventing flooding), power cables, and pipes (preventing excavation damages), with numerous other conceivable applications - sensors for charging EVs. We're three or four or five months into it, Habbouche said. Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are already using it at some of their DSM metro projects, said Perry Beeman, a spokesperson for NVIAMG. Why not use plastic, a recycled petroleum product, which now accounts for an overabundance of trash, rather than asphalt, a new petroleum product? But you have over 75% stacked in a landfill. Originally, VolkerWessels ran the PlasticRoad project.

That was no simple task; there were many bumps along thisparticular road. PlasticRoad is a completely circular product with a significantly smaller carbon footprint than traditional road structures thanks to the longer lifespan and the reduction of transport movements involved in its construction. 2022 MacReburs plastic road reduces the amount of bitumen needed for asphalt. The ability to use recycled plastic in asphalt could address two of our most challenging problems: the plastic waste crisis and our aging infrastructure, Carla Toth said. The current infrastructure and its traditional drainage systems cannot deal with this much water, resulting in flooding andmassive subsidence. India has also published a code for the hot and cold mixing of plastic waste at plants. RPM asphalt mixtures are created through several steps: the recycled plastic usually water bottles, soda bottles, and single-use plastic bags is sorted by polymer type, such as polyethylene (PE) plastic bags in one group and PET bottles in the other. It was led by Anne Koudstaal and co-founder Simon Jorritsma (who were employees of VolkerWessels at the time) and run viaKWS, a Dutch market leader in road construction and a division of VolkerWessels. We're looking to do a yearly monitoring, hopefully for the next 4, 5, 6, 7 years., Theyve collected data such as the road temperature, the water level within the roadway, and the road surface load. What is the next step for thePlasticRoad? In the field of polymers, Total combines key areas of expertise in catalysis, processes and products to provide high performance and durable solutions for its customers. Because our waste plastic products are cheaper than the bitumen that we put into roadsthe asphalt manufacturers save the money and hopefully pass that on to the likes of VDOT.. One method, which tends to be used in some developing countries or areas with foot traffic only, is to literally create plastic roads, where waste plastic is compacted and used to pave a road with minimal or no asphalt. McCartney said if his product is successful, VDOT will not technically be his client. He said VDOT has been moving to make its asphalt production more green for years, which includes using recycled materials. But he did say that VDOT wouldnt need to start any new paving practices or buy new equipment. It is hollow so as to prevent flooding by allowing temporary rainwater storage. And Dow Chemical Co. recently worked with government officials in India and waste collectors in Bangalore and Pune to pave 40 kilometres of roads with its Elvaloy polymer-modified asphalt technology, diverting the equivalent of 25 million flexible pouches from landfills. Safety is a big thing that we look at. The first road attracted significant press attention and generateda number ofinquiries from companies and governmental organizations looking to install one, and it is still in constant use by locals. The rest of the highway was left as it was; unsupported. By May, about 150,000 cyclists had traversed the road. Dr. Hossain proposed to use recycled plastic soda bottles to create pins to stabilize the roads and lessen the incidence of cracks and buckling, thereby making the roads last longer. It all started at the Netherlands' leading road builder, KWS (part of VolkerWessels), where Anne and Simon were employed. The data meant the road we built was more than twice as robust as the pilot roads, Koudstaal says.

Behind the Numbers: Seclusion & Restraint, Fonticello Food Forest cultivates produce, community, Fillmore Place being investigated over residents missing stimulus checks, Report: Some of the least populated areas in Virginia have the highest incarceration rates. We need to reinvent the road to meet these challenges, says Anne Koudstaal, founder and director of product at PlasticRoad, a startup project by Dutch construction groupVolkerWessels. In some early applications, where waste plastic was simply ground up and tossed into the mix, the plastic agglomerated near the road surface, creating the opportunity for small pieces to break away and generate microplastic pollution. GreenMantras advanced recycling technology creates a new sustainable wax thats derived from recycled plastic. We found a way to use the old plastic that no one can do anything else with., Each year, the USA produces about 400 million tons of asphalt, according to the National Asphalt Pavement Organization. And we're looking to finalize our testing hopefully by the summer, he said. The lightweight road is quick to install and made of materials that are cheaper than traditional road-building materials. Each lane contains nearly 2,200 pounds (approximately 1,000 kilograms) of recycled plasticthe equivalent of 218,000 plastic cups. Weve also been invited by the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) to submit our waxes for evaluation for a test track that will be paved this upcoming summer, and we have several other projects and trials underway in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, Toth said. So the numbers keep on getting up and up and up.. Marcel has always been passionate about finding simple solutions to complicated problems, and he thought that building a PlasticRoad could be a perfect opportunity to do that. You're subjecting these materials to high heat and things like that.. Wavin (part of Orbia) and VolkerWessels (one of the largest construction firms in and outside the Netherlands) are company shareholders as of 2020. Their proof-of-concept combines a transparent driving surface with underlying solar cells, electronics and sensors to act as a solar array with programmable capability. As waxes have a much lower viscosity and softening point, this translates into differentiated performance in the asphalt. MacRebur already has a facility in San Diego, and now is finalizing plans for a new plant in Tampa, Fla. A pilot project in July 2020 that repaved three lanes on a 1,000-foot section of highway in the town of Oroville, Calif., using recycled asphalt pavement and liquid plastic from single-use plastic bottles. As recent examples from around the world show, the use of recycled plastic-modified (RPM) asphalt binders and mixtures are beginning to make inroads in paving technology. These types of mostly plastic roads perform to a different standard perhaps suitable for lower traffic conditions or bike or pedestrian paths but arent capable of meeting the engineering requirements specified by the transportation authorities from Canada and the U.S., so theyre not viable for widespread paving application in North America, said Carla Toth, senior vice president of sales and marketing with GreenMantra Technologies, a Brantford, Ont.-based company thats pioneering new ways to incorporate recycled plastic in asphalt. We hope, and according to some preliminary results, that in the future, it will be cost effective, Habbouche said. GreenMantra changes and redesigns the carbon chain of recycled PE plastic feedstock, creating a more functional shorter chain wax that easily melts into and integrates seamlessly with the asphalt and doesnt create microplastic pieces, Toth said. Since 2012 Wavin is part of the Mexichem Group, the Latin American world leader in the pipe system and petrochemical industry. How do we solve climate challenges, such as stormwater drainage? The positive environmental and societal impact of these combined projects is enormous, as each kilometre of road paved with our waxes can divert the equivalent of 2.6 million single-use plastic bags from landfills.. He said his team is also looking at any potential environmental impacts, including stormwater runoff of any microplastics. Koudstaal and his team created the eponymous PlasticRoad, aprefabricatedroad made from recycled materials. Once PlasticRoad meets all the technical, environmental and safety requirements, a pilot installation will be built to perform practical tests, and the goal is to realize a pilot at the end of 2017 somewhere in the Netherlands. A challenge, however, is to balance the asphalt performance with gains in recycling and sustainability as well as environmental concerns. We've done a huge amount of research on and actual implementation for VDOT, including [using] recycled asphalt pavement, Habbouche said, adding that MacReburs product is one of many theyre looking at.

Caltrans is testing the material for later use throughout the state. But he says they could still see savings. In 2015, KWS decided to take a step toward making their vision a reality. Taxpayers could save tens of millions of dollars in future annual road expenses if the experiments work. Can health and well-being be made more accessible? Theres also concern about the potential for certain types of melted plastic to release toxic fumes. Theres a backdrop to the quest to improve blacktop: as freeze-thaw cycles, UV rays, moisture, and traffic pressure wear down traditional asphalt pavement, it breaks down, forming cracks and potholes. And it's very challenging, because processing that is a game changer.. Chennai, India plans to bury plastic waste beneath roads. Its activities span oil and gas production, refining, petrochemicals and marketing.

But in late 2015 the mayor of Chennai announced the plastic road projectwould be revived, sparked by thedestructionof Chennais roads after the floods of 2015. Beyond that, more bike paths, pedestrianareasand car parks, and in the future yes, potentially urban highways made of plastic. UK company MacRebur Total supports initiatives that reduce its carbon footprint including the use and development of renewable biosourced and recycled feedstocks, in line with its commitment to better energy. When added to the liquid asphalt, our PE wax readily melts and fully incorporates with the asphalt, and once mixed, remains very stable. Thats the black, sticky, oily, smelly stuff people see when roads are being paved. What are the limits, constraints, said Habbouche. Costwas a barrier because original experiments tried to use virgin plastic for this better product. The Netherlands has a water problem. Texas experiments. Polymerized asphalts also tend not to buckle in extreme heat the way conventional roads do plastic roads will not melt unless the temperature goes beyond 66C (150F),compared to 50.2C (122.5F) for ordinary roads. Assembling the road is like LEGO: It takes just a few clicks, and everything is built in. Habbouche, whose main job is as a pavement resource scientist, said the numbers around how much plastics end up in landfills is staggering. Courtesy of PlasticRoad. Finally, in 2016, the road was ready for a first internal trial. But rainwater management is just one of PlasticRoads manyadvantages. Since its first road, according to World Highways Magazine, KK Plastics product has been used on 3,000 kilometres of Bangalore road with its KK Poly Blend mixed at a rate of eight per cent to asphalt. Leadership from the Netherlands to clean up ocean plastic will provide resources to recycle into this industry. Quietly, without fanfare, the PlasticRoad team installed a test road at a KWS company location. Its found in deposits such as oil sands and pitch lakes but is primarily produced as a residue when crude oil is distilled. The most widely used polymer, styrene-butadiene-styrene, can increase the price of a road by30-50%, though the Scottish company MacRebur argues that their method will build not only betterbut also cheaper roads. Their concept seems to have most promise in a test case limitedtoparking lots. After the study ended this past August, it was found that the supported section had moved only one to two inches, where the control sections the ones left unsupported had moved about 15 inches. For years, sea levels have been rising at a rate with which the countrys infrastructure cannot cope. Today,almost halfthe countrys total surface area lies less than 3.5 feet (about 1 meter) above sea level, and even more alarmingly, nearlya thirdof the country is situated below sea level. A report in The Atlantic Cities describes a two-year feasibility study done on sections of Texas Route 287 where 10-foot long pins were drilled into one section of roadway slope. A game-like knowledge ecosystem supports learning, emergent innovation, and cross-disciplinary problem-solving More, Industry Response to the Plastic Challenge, could not produce enough shredded plastic waste, multibillion-dollar overhaul of the countrys roads and highways, compared to 50.2C (122.5F) for ordinary roads, frequently used on roads in the Middle East, Leadership from the Netherlands to clean up ocean plastic, special lane for electric cars that can charge them as they drive, Boyan Slat: Floater Technology for Ocean Cleanu, Dame Ellen MacArthur: The Circular Economy, Sylvia Earle: Learning for a Plastic World, earthDECKS Limelights: Companies to Watch, Floating Trash: More than 4x as bad as we thought, Give the World a Helping Hand: 3D Prostheses, Plastic Climate Change Connection: Israel & UBQ, Plastic: Drinking Water, Table Salt & Mothers Milk, Plastic Pollution Coalition: Campaign vs Single Use Plastic, Plastic & Public Health: Endocrine Disruptors, Plastic Roads Global Innovation Ecosystem, Plastiki: adventure stories & a big message. From waste to wonder: The road made entirely of recycled plastic. The second pilot was installed in late 2018 inGiethoorn, also in the Netherlands, with the aim to test it in weak soil conditions. Courtesy of PlasticRoad. Incorporating recycled plastic into the asphalt mixture may help to alleviate these issues by making the pavement more durable, and also has other complementary sustainable benefits: it improves overall resource efficiency and enhances the circular economy by reducing the amount of post-consumer plastic going into landfills; extends the limited supply of the petroleum in asphalt; and can be reused immediately on-site, whereas traditional pavement is ground up and reused at a later time. ; and a parking lot in Burnside, N.S. GreenMantra, a pioneer in the field of advanced recycling technologies in Canada, is promoting a new approach to using plastics in roads. Furthermore, most Dutch houses are built onwooden piles, which is hardly conducive when climate change is causing the groundwater level to rise year over year as rain falls in heavier, more sporadic bursts. You might think it would be a daunting task to completely reinvent an infrastructure solution.

Sribala Subramaniannotes in The Guardian that adding flexible materials to strengthen tar roads has a history. https://www.canplastics.com/canplastics/heartland-names-former-nova-leader-todd-karran-as-ceo-of-petrochemicals/1003459187/, In a move that expands its footprint in the #sustainable #packaging sector, Canadian-owned PET product maker CKF is buying Molded Fiber Technology #plastics #acquisition In rural Ontario they are used to prevent roads fromcracking after a harsh winter. Their innovation can be adopted in the Texas initiative, informed by the recent experience of severe storms. Which means its the end of the road for a lot of waste plastics, Congratulations to Greg DeKunder, polyethylene marketing vice president with Nova Chemicals, who is back on the job after a cancer diagnosis in December 2021! Although these individual initiatives do not reference each other,earthDECKS (Distributed, Evolving Collaborative Knowledge System) promotes innovationby cross-referencing informationvia its CIQ (Collaborative IQ) Network. We take this seriously, Habbouche said. At the same time, there are 40 million kilometers of roads around the globe. Habbouche said its too early to determine what the cost for using MacReburs product would be since the project is still in its early stages. A few plastic facts from today: It is estimated that every year, eight billion kilograms of plastic ends up in our oceans. The Dutch joint venture, PLASTIC ROAD, the Scottish startup company, MACREBUR, and the Texas R&D effort alluse recycled plasticin their alternative to asphalt,arguing that it saves oil, reduces plastic waste, AND produces stronger, better, cheaper roads. Its building materials are cheaper and more resistant to fire, earthquakes, and hurricanes, according to. Its not often you can help solve two of the worlds problems with a single solution. Dow sees demand for this technology growing throughout the Asia-Pacific region where plastic roads have already been constructed in Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam and the chemical maker is also piloting the technology in cities across the U.S. An emergent supplier is Lockerbie, Scotland-based asphalt specialist MacRebur, which offers three different types of pellets which vary in durability and pliability that it sells into the international asphalt market. But usually they produce brand new plastic to put into the road to enhance it. Both McCartney and Habbouche said their goal is to source wasted plastic locally. Dr. Sahadat Hossain, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, proposed that Texas could spend $200,000 or $300,000 on repairs instead of a million dollars on repairsand also remove millions, perhaps billions, of non-decomposing plastic bottles out of landfills. It's the asphalt manufacturers that we help to reduce their costs because all of our products are bitumen replacement products, McCartney said. In the first six months of operation, the road produced more energy than expected: about 3,000 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power a single small household for one year. The companys first project in the U.S., at the University of California at San Diego early last year, involved paving a small test area in front of a graduate housing complex, and the university may introduce the plastic asphalt throughout the campus if it proves viable. The Netherlands has a strong culture of transport innovation, having opened the worlds first solar bike lane, a 230-foot stretch of road embedded with solar cells that are protected by two layers of safety glass. Because of thevisionarynature of creating a road from recycled plastic, the project became a start-up under the name PlasticRoad with VolkerWessels and Wavin providing continuous support as sponsors. Today North America has35% of the globalmarket. Suppose we had a substitute? I thought there you go, there's a solution.. We've had some preliminary data right now. Twopilot projectsa pair of 100-foot cycle paths built in the Dutch towns ofZwolleand Giethoorndemonstrate the benefits of this marvel ofsustainability. Many of these projects are only a few years old, which means the long-term durability of the pavements have yet to be determined, but one thing seems certain: As the asphalt industry advances and makes strides to become more sustainable, recycling post-consumer plastic into asphalt pavement mixtures is, increasingly, the responsible action. In 2012 onenearby town offered agram of goldas an incentive for citizens to collect discarded plastic bags. What's next: The Des Moines test site shows the road is more durable and "you'll probably start seeing more of it," Shane Fetters, a field technician for the Iowa DOT, told Axios this week. Get more local stories in your inbox with Axios Des Moines. https://www.canplastics.com/canplastics/nova-executive-greg-dekunder-back-to-work-after-cancer-battle/1003459191/, . Saving Our Oceans from Plastic: articles by Zann Gill, earthDECKS draws on the analog of card games, but in this deck of cards each card is a knowledge resource. It is also four times lighter and as much as 70% faster to build. PlasticRoad holds that trade secret confidential, and suffice to say, it was not an easy task, but, yet again, Marcel and the PlasticRoad team kept going until they had the perfect plastic. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, that is about $5 billion less thanTexas needs to spend for road maintenance and repair of their 311,000 miles of road. With more and more recycled plastic being used to repave highways and roads around the world, we might be driving toward a future with a lot less plastic pollution. This idea led to what is now PlasticRoad: an independent company ready for its commercial launch and official market introduction in 2021, from which point onward it will sell industrially manufactured PlasticRoads. Their mission is to reduce plastic in landfills by using it for roads. Plus, it lasts three times longer and produces up to 72% fewer carbon-dioxide emissions than conventional roads. Drivers and cyclists traveling over a small section of Old Stage Road in southern Chesterfield County may not realize that theyre riding over the states first plastic road. California and Missouri are two other states also studying this asphalt mixture. Its not a case of burying rubbish in our roads. MacReburs binder product, which McCartney says is a performance enhancer thats meant to make the binding agent work better, caught the attention of people at the Virginia Department of Transportation, like senior research scientist Jhony Habbouche. Among those involved were Marcels Wavin team members and engineers TomLansinkand Twan Boshove.

The Washington, D.C.-based Plastics Industry Association has committed to work collaboratively with its member companies in partnership with NCAT on the New End Market Opportunities for Film Asphalt project. A30 meterbike path pilot opened to the public on September 11, 2018, amid much fanfare and attention. That would be mission accomplished, Koudstaal says. Turning ropes and fishing nets into green plastic.

Canadian Plastics February 5, 2021. The next step was to learn howto take single-use plastic and turn it into something that was strong enough to cope with constant traffic. https://www.canplastics.com/canplastics/wittmann-group-sets-order-intake-record-in-2021/1003459147/, Nova executive Greg DeKunder back to work after cancer battle, Ontario recycler EFS-plastics earns Recycling Partnership grant, Nova Chemicals expands its HDPE resins for oriented film structures, reciChain plastics recycling program expands to Alberta, McGill University launches initiative to help manufacturing businesses become sustainable, Researchers develop recyclable composites, Viking-era Greenland inspires rPET water bottle concept by Sidel, Technology turns waste plastic to diesel fuel, Heartland petrochemical complex in Alberta begins production of PP pellets, Big three automakers cancel summer shutdowns to meet renewed demand, Quebec injection molding start-up Lacus Innovations gets government funding, Canadian distributor Plastics Plus acquired by Piedmont Plastics, Davis-Standard appoints Mike Brown as vice president for its Canadian operations. And all the plastic would melt down to form a seal in the hole. A strip of asphalt made with recycled plastics that was deployed in Sarnia, Ont. What they're saying: NewRoad's Florida-based developer, New Village Initiative Advanced Materials Group (NVIAMG), claims its product can lower road costs as much as 30%, while simultaneously diverting plastics from landfills. And as much as we kind of encourage recycling, we want to make sure we're doing it the right way.. Engineer Toby McCartneydeveloped their method for recycling plastic pellets for the 10% bitumen (a petroleum product) now used in asphalt road mix. The first cycle lanes have already been built. Ateam in Texas noted that the state of Texas spends about $10 billion a year on transportation. In India, high-stress roads likerunways and expresswaysare increasingly using polymer modified asphalts made by manufacturers like DuPont. Because the Netherlands is below sea level andinnovating to address predicted sea level rise,their initiative is leading innovation in roads as flood drainage systems. paved with asphalt that included two tonnes of material made from plastic shopping bags in a demonstration project undertaken by Goodwood Plastic Products Ltd., of Shortts Lake, N.S. Then they would pour diesel fuel over and light it on fire. Preliminary results show a heavily traveled section near the Polk County Jail is holding up better than an adjacent portion that used conventional asphalt, Matt Miller, a construction technician with the DOT, told Axios. Habbouche said its an ongoing project that gets evaluated from both the lab and from field performance. Illinois uses modified polymers to buildhigh-traffic truck roads, Washington State uses them fornoise reduction. In the Netherlands, however, the watery soil typically means roads require renovation every 20 years or less. Exploring the potential for multifunctional roads, a husband-wife team based in Sandpoint, Idaho founded a company, Solar Roadways, which proposes solar roads. The roads recycled materials, prefabricated design, low weight, and modular construction all save huge amounts of material and labor resources. If you go back to 2017, we have 36 million tons of plastics. Why it matters: Inclement Iowa weather, like today's Saskatchewan screamer, can take a serious toll on our roads. It is 4 times lighter than traditional asphalt roads, has a 2-3 times longer expected live span than traditional paved roads, costs approximately 50% less, and can be built 70% quicker. The Texas researchers have teamed up with Dykes Paving out of Atlanta, Georgia, for implementation. The road panels are to be made from recycled materials and incorporate photovoltaic cells. To tackle both plastic pollutionand climate change, the company is producing the next generation of sustainable infrastructure: roads made out of recycled plastic.

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