Canada – With the help of Toronto-based recycler GreenMantra, the Canadian city of Vancouver intends to pave roads using a new asphalt mix which contains wax derived from recycled plastic bottles.
Currently in its trail phase, the project will see roughly 400 kg of the recycled wax used in a four-block strip. Though the wax makes up just 1% of the asphalt by weight, ‘it makes the asphalt more fluid and workable’, explains Peter Judd, the city’s General Manager of Engineering Services.
According to GreenMantra, the wax-bearing mix requires significantly less energy and also produces less odour. Although differences in performance when compared to traditional asphalt have yet to be fully evaluated, the recycled wax has been proven to prevent the ageing of asphaltic oils.
This innovation requires hardly any fuel to mix it up properly, according to Jack Davidson, President of British Columbia’s Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association. ‘We’re trying to get the temperature down as it saves greenhouse gas emissions – that’s where we want to go as an industry.’
Vancouver has been experimenting with various mixes since 2008. Following ‘rigorous lab testing’, the engineering crew then began paving short sections of road in less busy areas this July. Down the line, city officials are hoping that local companies will start producing the material, currently manufactured in Ontario.
For more information, visit: www.greenmantra.ca
Source: Journal of Commerce
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