Recycled Roads in Melbourne’s West

February 24, 2020

A council in Melbourne’s west has taken to reusing recycled pavement, glass and reclaimed plastic shampoo and milk bottles to build greener roads.

This month, Maribyrnong City Council worked with Alex Fraser to resurface Harriet Street in Seddon with Green Roads PolyPave^TM; an innovative, high performance asphalt containing up to 40 per cent recycled content.

Maribyrnong’s first stretch of green road has reused more than 600 recycling bins of recycled waste, including around 3,100 two-litre plastic bottles and 23,400 glass bottles – equal to about two and a half years of yellow wheelie bin collections for every household in Harriet Street.

Alex Fraser’s crew resurfaced Harriet St, Seddon with Green Roads PolyPave asphalt

The City of Maribyrnong is clearly committed to reducing its impact on the environment; having long supported the use of recycled materials in infrastructure, the council declared a state of climate emergency last year, calling on urgent action by all levels of government.

Alex Fraser Asphalt GM Brendan Camilleri said Maribyrnong City Council was one of the first metropolitan councils in Victoria to amend their specifications to clearly allow the use of recycled materials in their road construction.

“Maribyrnong City’s recent use of PolyPave^TM in the wearing course for their roads is another positive step towards achieving sustainable development for the city.”

“It’s great to see more and more councils turning towards greener construction products. By choosing sustainable alternative like PolyPave^TM Melbourne’s municipalities are demonstrating how a circular economy can be achieved with local government, industry and the community all working together,” said Brendan.

PolyPave asphalt reduces landfill, truck traffic and carbon emissions, and provides a longer lasting pavement – an all round sustainable option.

On top of its high recycled content, PolyPave^TM is produced with warm mix technology, providing a further 40 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and ranking it as the greenest in the industry.

Roads built with PolyPave^TM are less sensitive to increased pavement temperature and laboratory results have proven increased fatigue life and better rut resistance.

By choosing to use Green Roads PolyPave^TM on this project, Maribyrnong City Council have saved:

• 41 tonnes of waste from landfill
• 270 kilograms of carbon emissions

Alex Fraser is a leading Australian recycler responsible for annually diverting almost four million tonnes of waste from landfill, to produce sustainable construction materials to build new infrastructure, like roads, rail, bridges, and ports.

Read more about this project here: 

Maribyrnong City Council Media Release

Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay Star Weekly 05/02/2020

Herald Sun 04/02/2020