The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration has funded preliminary research into roads made from recycled plastic waist instead of conventional asphalt. The preliminary results are positive.
Roads made out of recycled plastic waist have already been development since 2015 in Europe and in Holland they are already starting to pave with plastic. The PlasticRoad is made of recycled plastic. It is prefabricated and features a hollow space that can be used for various purposes including water storage, transit of cables and pipes, heating roads, generating energy etc. The PlasticRoad elements allow for circular reuse.
Preliminary research is taking place in Iceland to see if discarded plastic can be used in tarmac.
Jamie McQuilkin with ReSource International received a grand from The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration last year to explore the possibility of using discarded plastic for roads in Iceland.
The first results are positive and encourage further research. If possible, this solution could be extremely beneficial for the environment and save the Icelandic state millions Icelandic krona as this solution would be cheaper for them than using traditional tarmac according to Monitor.
The idea was probably born in India where they have already been using waist plastic in their roads for a few years.
The plastic roads are part of the effort to counter the threat of plastic pollution which involves the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat and humans.