Conventional roads offer a lot of problems for the community. Luckily, an engineer from the United Kingdom devised a product called MR6 that integrates recycled plastic and other wastes in making roads.
According to Digital Trends, U.K. entrepreneur and engineer Toby McCartney is the one who pioneered the project. McCarthy was stated to aim for a road that is made up of high-quality road asphalt but this time, made up of recycled plastic through using their MR6 product.
“We take waste plastic that is destined for landfill sites and recycle it,” McCartney stated as something that comprised MR6. “What we’re able to do is to take this plastic that has been thrown away, and use a special formula to clean it off, create pellets using it, and then use those pellets to add to a mixture of rocks and bitumen to make longer-lasting roads.”
As of now, McCarthy’s goal of a road made from recycled plastic has already been approved by Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson. The Drive then reported that his company MacRebur already has support from two local governments as well to use their MR6 product. It was also explained that standard products that are used to make roads were described to be 90 percent rock, sand, and limestone, and 10 percent bitumen.
With that said, MR6 was identified to be the product that will replace the last oil-based substance bitumen in making roads. McCarthy’s Scotland-based company then explained that their product is made entirely from waste materials. Nonetheless, he stated that roads made with MR6 are more durable and less likely to crack compared to those conventional roads. He also added that MR6 lessens tire resistance and would make local governments save money for maintenance.
The first MR6 road was mentioned to be applied in McCarthy’s driveway. Meanwhile, the latest MR6 project is being worked on the road at northwest England in Cumbria County. McCarthy then concluded that their next plan is to expand the use of MR6 to other countries must be executed in the right way as they could experience over demand.
