Dive Brief:
- Dutch construction company VolkerWessels is teaming up with the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to use recycled ocean plastic to build roadways. The prototypes are currently being built in a "street lab."
- Aside from utilizing recycled materials, the new streets have many benefits including a quicker installation period, less maintenance, and significantly less CO2 emissions. Currently, asphalt is responsible for 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions globally each year, according to The Guardian.
- Although the prototypes are far from being manufactured, VolkerWessels hopes to install the first plastic roadway in Rotterdam within three years.
Dive Insight:
Industry leaders are consistently facing many challenges when deciding how to best recycle plastics — especially those washed up as ocean debris. By recycling such plastics into pre-fabricated, installable road "bricks," VolkerWessels is saving the environment, as well as making significant strides in engineering innovation.
“It’s still an idea on paper at the moment; the next stage is to build it and test it in a laboratory to make sure it’s safe in wet and slippery conditions and so on. We’re looking for partners who want to collaborate on a pilot – as well as manufacturers in the plastics industry, we’re thinking of the recycling sector, universities and other knowledge institutions," said Jaap Peters from Rotterdam's City Council Engineering Bureau.
