Los Angeles Is Testing ‘Plastic Asphalt’ That Makes It Possible to Recycle Roads
25th October 2019
A street in downtown L.A. will soon be repaved, but the road won’t be quite the standard asphalt road we’re used to. Instead, it will be covered with a material made, in part, from recycled plastic bottles. The plastic is a key in a new process for street paving: For the first time, the city will be able to grind up the existing road and fully recycle it in place, using the plastic to actually make the pavement stronger than it was before.
October 26th, 2019 at 17:23
So what happens when the road surface temperature spikes in the summer? Does the road surface melt? Or is that the thought crime of noticing?
October 27th, 2019 at 15:18
Presumably the plastic is rendered thermally stable through polymerization. But that’s not mentioned; modern ‘journalists’ are about as inquisitive as high-school newspaper editors.