The glass that's recycled from your bins has a new use – in your local roads.
Brimbank Council is working with the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) on an Australian first project to trial finely crushed recycled glass in asphalt on two residential streets in Deer Park.
Brimbank is the first local government area to lay this much glass in the road surface on its roads. It includes up to 10 per cent recycled glass and 25 per cent recycled asphalt.
The trial is broken up into six sections across 800 metres of road in Newbury Street and Gould Street in Deer Park. Council is working closely with the ARRB to continue to test and monitor the performance of the road surface over the next two years.
If the results of the trial are successful, it will significantly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, by allowing existing asphalt to be recycled and reused. This is in addition to redirecting a significant amount of recycled glass.
Council will also advocate to the Department of Transport to create new technical standards for the use of increased recycled materials in road pavements in all local government areas. This would outdate the current VicRoads standards which allow for up to 5 per cent recycled crushed glass in roads.
This innovative road project has been co-funded by Brimbank City Council, Sustainability Victoria, ARRB and Department of Transport. Brimbank City Council has partnered with ARRB, Fulton Hogan, Alex Fraser and Downer to develop the commercialisation of the new asphalt product.
Quotes to be attributed to Brimbank Mayor Cr Jasmine Nguyen:
"Brimbank's innovative road project is paving the way towards 100 per cent recycled roads, with reduced costs and reduced waste for all local governments.
"By testing and monitoring the innovative asphalt over the next two years, Brimbank can assist in the development of a new standard surface that incorporates more recycled materials, to be implemented in all future local government roads."
Quotes to be attributed to the ARRB Sustainability Principal Professional, Dr James Grenfell
"This is the first Australian trial that's involved multiple suppliers of recycled crushed glass materials, and involved control sections without recycled glass, for comparison.
"It's expected the recycled crushed glass mixes will perform just as well as the control mixtures. That will give us confidence moving forward that we can utilise recycled crushed glass in the road surface for local government both in rehabilitation and for re-sheeting purposes."
