Hume Council counts 111 roads resurfaced with recycled materials since 2018

Hume City Council has announced it has so far resurfaced 111 roads using 23,744 tonnes of an Australian-engineered solution that uses repurposed plastic bags, glass, and other recycled materials.

Hume said in a statement that it laid the first such road in 2018, and has continued its partnership with Downer, resource recovery and recycling firm Close the Loop, and collection company RED Group. 

Reconophalt was developed by Close the Loop and engineering company Downer.

According to Hume, the roads have “saved 126 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent to 52 cars off the road for one year and diverted 21,000 plastic bags, 617 printer cartridges and 5,229 tonnes of recycled asphalt from landfill” through the use of the product.

A kilometre of road contains approximately 530,000 plastic bag and packaging equivalents, 168,000 glass bottle equivalents, toners from 12,500 used printer cartridges, and 134 tonnes of reclaimed asphalt (it is 20 per cent reclaimed asphalt pavement.)

“These plastic and glass products would have otherwise ended up in landfill, stockpiled, or as a pollutant in our natural environments,” said the council.

Reconophalt has won several awards, and according to Downer is both cost-competitive with regular asphalt, while offering “up to 65% improvement in fatigue life and superior deformation resistance.”

Picture: Close the Loop

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