Plastic roads could cut greenhouse-gas emissions

A Dutch company is working with the city of Rotterdam to develop the first generation of plastic roads, which could cut carbon-dioxide emissions from road transport by 2 per cent.

The process of creating and laying tarmac road surfaces currently contributes that 2 per cent to overall transport emissions.

The plastic roads, developed by the Volker Wessels company, could eliminate those emissions and be faster and more affordable to lay than conventional roads.

The road is made in prefabricated sections, called bricks, then transported to the site and dropped into place. The bricks – which could be made from recycled plastic – are hollow, to allow for drainage channels, cables and pipes to be installed simply.

There would be concerns about durability and the emissions that would come from producing the plastic, and the project is still in the very early stages of creation and testing, but both Volker Wessels and the city Rotterdam have high hopes.

Very positive “We are very positive about the developments surrounding Plastic Road,”

Jaap Peters, a Rotterdam civil engineer, says. "Rotterdam is a city that is open to experiments and innovative practical applications. Thus we also have a test space, the Lab Street, available, where an innovation such as this can be tested."

According to US website Jalopnik, though, there’s nothing new about this: India has been using recycled plastic to create prefabricated road sections for years, albeit that these are then covered in tarmac.