New road reseal to include 120,000 recycled glass bottles
Council is moving towards a zero-waste economy.
Rockhampton
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NEW asphalt is being poured in South Rockhampton’s Murray St – and residents will be surprised to learn it’s full of recycled glass.
Rockhampton Regional Council is paving its way to a zero-waste economy as the trial takes place this week.
The reseal asphalt mix includes five per cent recycled glass, which equates to about 120,000 glass bottles.
Councillor for Infrastructure Tony Williams said council’s ultimate goal was to have recycled glass included in asphalt mixes for all road projects.
“It’s exciting news and something council has been working on for a number of years with Boral Australia and also looking at ways of recycling a resource that was traditionally going into landfill,” he said.
“We look forward to rolling it out in many streets in the region and kilometres.”
Councillor for Waste Shane Latcham said the project fed into Rockhampton Regional Waste and Recycling’s broader strategy to move to a zero waste-economy.
“Glass is such an important material, it can be recycled endlessly without a loss of integrity and it’s great it can be applied in roads,” he said.
The asphalt lays exactly the same and will appear the same to drivers.
“I don’t think you’d be able to tell the difference,” Cr Latcham said.
The recycled glass had been previously used in backfill and trenches and there is now potential for it to be used in new footpaths.
From here, Boral Asphalt’s Dave Daniels, who supplies the asphalt, said the road would be tested and they would hopefully produce more recycled asphalt in the future.
“There will be some performance testing and characterisation to see if the asphalt meets specifications and requirements,” he said.
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