We often hear about using recycled plastics to create containers, furniture, even art – but what about roads? The California-based company TechniSoil Industrial has succeeded in creating a new type of polymer-based binder, known as Neo, which creates a road that lasts 2-3 times longer than traditional asphalt. Neo is used in a Cold In-Place Recycling process to recycle the entire roadway in place, including the wearing course. Neo uses 150,000 plastic bottles per lane mile, creates a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a decrease of 84 truckloads per mile of hauling waste asphalt out and new asphalt in, and provides the opportunity for same-day returns to traffic. The Neo roadways are expected to last three times longer than asphalt and are about five times as strong as traditional materials, with zero flow.
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Photo courtesy of Neopave.
