Roads built of recycled plastics? They will soon be constructed in PHL

Innovations in the infrastructure industry are being developed to sustainably utilize plastic waste.

In the Philippines, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is set to build roads out of hard-to-recycle plastics by incorporating them as a raw material input — an ingredient! — to make asphalt.

The initiative is part of the company's goal to address solid waste pollution.

"Developing roads using plastics that would otherwise end up in landfills or our bodies of water is an environment-friendly method of disposing scrap plastics," SMC president and COO Ramon S. Ang said.

"We can help our environment and at the same time improve the quality of our infrastructure projects,” he added.

Aside from reducing the number of plastic wastes in the landfills, this new technology in road surfacing is also seen to reduce asphalt costs and improve the stability and durability of roads.

It also guarantees better road safety as skid resistance will increase.

SMC will be working with materials science company Dow Chemical for the project. It will initially be tested in small municipal roads, sidewalks, and parking lots.

Larger infrastructure endeavors are expected to be rolled out if the innovation meets all the safety and quality requirements, according to Ang.

“While we are proud to be the first-mover in this area, we are very hopeful that we won’t be the last or the only ones. The research is there and available to everyone, and we’ll be glad to share our own processes and experience. At the end of the day, this kind of innovation will benefit the same environment we all share,” he said.

The same technology in the use of plastics on building roads has previously been tested in India, Indonesia, and Thailand. — LA, GMA News