Melbourne’s Greenest Road Paved in the City of Yarra
September 26, 2018
Alex Fraser has just paved Melbourne’s greenest road, helping Victoria make another step towards a circular economy through the development of Green Roads PolyPave™ – an innovative, high performance asphalt product containing recycled materials, including plastic, glass and RAP. A resurfacing project in Victoria’s City of Yarra will be the first of many roads to incorporate this new sustainable material.
Stanley Street Richmond is the first road to be paved with PolyPave a high performance sustainable asphalt mix
Alex Fraser is Australia’s leading recycler, responsible for diverting more than 3.5 million tonnes of waste from landfill every year to manufacture the sustainable construction materials needed to build greener roads.
Road resurfacing works commenced this week with Stanley and Margaret Street in Richmond repaved with PolyPave™, containing recycled glass, asphalt, and HDPE plastic (hard plastic/bottles) amounting to almost 100 tonnes of recycled waste. The initial project reduced landfill by 97.3 tonnes and carbon emissions by 633 kilograms. Approximately 7,300 2L plastic bottles and 55,000 glass bottles were repurposed – equivalent to 1500 wheelie bins of waste glass and plastic, or the annual kerbside recycling collection for every household in Stanley Street. Several tonnes of recycled asphalt were also incorporated into the green mix design.
The City of Yarra has engaged Alex Fraser to repair and repave several more streets in the coming weeks, calling for an additional 1000 tonnes of the sustainable asphalt; saving another 25,000 plastic bottles from entering landfill.
GM Asphalt Brendan Camilleri, Technical Manager Peter Lazarus and Project Engineer Nathan Delaney were the driving force behind PolyPave and its maiden application.
Alex Fraser Managing Director Peter Murphy said this was a prime example of how circular economy can be achieved; with government, industry and community working together to recycle problem waste streams, and invest in recycled materials to build new, sustainable infrastructure.
“The City of Yarra’s progressive approach to the use of sustainable material is an excellent illustration of how local councils can proactively reuse the waste generated in their communities to build and maintain their cities while reducing the carbon footprint of their projects by up to 65 per cent.”
Mayor of City of Yarra Cr Daniel Nguyen said the City of Yarra had worked with Alex Fraser for many years to incorporate sustainable materials, like glass, recycled concrete and brick, into its road works.
“As a council with a strong focus on sustainability we are excited about using recycled plastics in our latest roadworks for the wide range of environmental benefits it delivers,” said Cr Nguyen.
About Green Roads PolyPave
Alex Fraser’s PolyPave™ asphalt incorporates recycled high-density polyethylene plastic. This will be the first time Alex Fraser uses plastic in asphalt.
Incorporating recycled plastic in asphalt results in several benefits, including:
- Increased fatigue life
- Improved asphalt rut resistance
- Increased asphalt modulus / stiffness
- Increased wet tensile strength
- Reduction in asphalt mix flow and creep
- Reduces the effect of ultraviolet radiation damage
- Less sensitive to increased pavement temperature
- Reduction in plastic to landfill and oceans eco systems.
Read more about some of our other PolyPave™ projects here:
Recycled Roads in Melbourne’s West
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