The asphalt with recycled plastic allows to extend the useful life of the roads up to 50% against conventional asphalt, according to the company that formulated it.
The first global road partially made with recycled plastic was inaugurated in Guanajuato by a group of companies with the support of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT).
The road connects the towns of Irapuato and Cuerámaro, and consists of 4 kilometers in which more than 1.7 tons of post-consumer plastic was used, equivalent to 425,000 flexible plastic packages, the chemical company Dow said.
This firm was responsible for the production of the modified asphalt together with its allies Vise, Surfax, Lasfalto and Omnigreen.
“With this new technology not only offers a possible solution to the management of plastic waste, but also allows the theoretical life of roads to be extended up to 50% versus conventional asphalt,”Dow Chemical Company
“The advantage of using recycled plastic products is that they can be used on any type of road, not just high performance products, so this can extend the life of any asphalt road,”Dow Chemical Company
Paula Sans, general director of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics in Mexico, highlighted the use of plastic materials in a circular economy model, in which they can be used more than one occasion.
“Demonstrating that roads made from modified high-performance asphalt using recycled plastic material can be obtained is a step forward to develop applications based on a circular economy business model and even provide a solution to the growing concern regarding waste management plastics, ”Paula Sans
Dow plans to do more pilot tests with the use of modified asphalt to be able to apply this technology on a large scale.