Hoppers Crossing home to state’s first footpath made of glass, plastic

Old drinking bottles and recycled glass are being used to create footpaths in Melbourne’s outer west, in an innovative push to put a stop to rapidly rising household waste in the area. Here’s how it works.

A Hoppers Crossing footpath is the first in Victoria to be made using recycled glass and plastic.

A Hoppers Crossing footpath made from recycled bottles is paving the way for a more sustainable future in the booming west.

Nearly 200,000 tiny plastic and glass shards were mixed with concrete to make the 200m stretch of path in Geddes Crescent Reserve — the first of its kind in Victoria.

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Wyndham councillor Heather Marcus said a research team from Swinburne University would monitor the durability of the path to determine if similar projects could be rolled out across the state.

“With Wyndham’s population growing at a rapid rate, it’s not only the city’s need for upgraded infrastructure that’s on the rise; the amount of waste and recyclables coming out of households is also increasing,” she said.

“Because of this we’re exploring different ways of meeting these growth demands while also exploring new ways to repurpose recyclables.”

The project, a joint venture between the council and Swinburne, was funded through a $72,000 Sustainability Victoria grant.

The innovative concrete aggregate contains plastics between four and eight millimetres, and glass fines, which are typically between three and eight millimetres in size.

Glass fines are too small to be recycled through the normal process and would otherwise be sent to landfill.

Sustainability Victoria chief executive Stan Krpan said projects like this helped build a better waste system for the state by using fewer natural resources and reducing carbon emissions.

“We can create more value from our waste by designing for reuse, keeping products circulating in the economy at their greatest value for as long as possible,” he said.

Recycled content supplier PolyTrade and concrete contractor MetroPlant have also been involved in the making of the path in Hoppers Crossing.

In a separate trial, Wyndham Council last month used plastic bags, glass bottles, printer cartridges and reclaimed asphalt to resurface several roads across the municipality.

Dunnings Rd in Point Cook, Haines Drive in Wyndham Vale and Boundary Rd in Truganina were given the eco-friendly treatment.