Can plastic roads be part of a sustainable future?

Monday, September 19, 2022 - 18:00

This seminar was held on 2 September 2022 at RMIT University in Melbourne. It was sponsored by Austroads and attracted an audience of more than 400 people across the world.

The 4-hour recording considers different perspectives of incorporating waste plastic into road and transport infrastructure. The first half of the session includes presentations by:

- Matt Genever, Sustainability Victoria
Research support and implementation strategies of using recycled plastics in construction/transport infrastructure across Victoria
- Fiona Bowie, John Holland
Recycled materials opportunities in major infrastructure projects
- Norbert Michel, AfPA
Industry perspective on using recycled plastics in road construction

The second session focussed on the research findings from Austroads project APT6305. The project evaluated several sources of recycled plastic and their potential for incorporated into asphalt pavements. The project used ‘wet’ (i.e. plastics blended in the bitumen) and ‘dry’ (i.e. plastics in the asphalt mix) methods to prepare recycled plastic bitumen and asphalt. The results provide insight into the potential advantages of incorporating recycled plastics in asphalt and constitute a framework for performance-based specifications. Emissions and microplastics testing frameworks were also developed with input from national environmental associations.

The full seminar can be viewed online at https://vimeo.com/747195448

 


Thank you to our Premier Sponsors