A street in downtown L.A. will soon be repaved with a material made from recycled bottles. According to an article in Fast Company, the city will grind up the existing road and fully recycle it on the spot, using plastic to make the pavement stronger than before.
TechniSoil Industrial, the company that designed the new process, has spent the last several years developing it. The system uses PET plastic, the material used in plastic waterbottles, to replace bitumen-- a sludge leftover from oil refining that is used to hold the asphalt together, the article reports.
To do this, a machine called a “recycling train” grinds up the top few inches of a street, crushes the asphalt, and mixes it with liquid plastic.
After conducting lab tests, the company calculated that its roads can last eight to 13 times longer than a standard road. The process is also more environmentally friendly, providing a 90 percent reduction in emissions and cutting down on waste.
Source: Fast Company
