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Paving the way to a sustainable future, two Australian councils have this past fortnight launched recycled glass in road and path construction initiatives. The most recent project took place in Sydney’s well known suburb of Bondi and was the first recycled glass road to be designed and approved by the NSW Road Traffic Authority. The second took place in Victoria’s Manningham Council with the laying ofa new shared pathway.
Both projects were funded by AFGC's Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) and have collectively diverted nearly 100 tonnes of recycled glass form landfill – that’s equivalent to more than 564,000 stubbies. The Bondi project, has seen Waverley Council embrace new uses for recycled glass in two road maintenance projects in Bondi, which will use 83 tonnes of recycled glass. Each site used a 100 metre section of an asphalt and concrete road and diverted glass which would have otherwise ended up in landfill. Waverley Mayor, Cr Sally Betts, said she was delighted to see her council lead the state in such an important recycling initiative, which was working to save Australia’s depleting coastline. “At Waverley, and indeed throughout Australia, we consider our beaches to be a very precious resource. I am extremely proud for our council to be one of those leading the way for the use of recycled glass in road and pavement construction,” Mayor Betts said. The project follows the launch of a recent project in Victoria, funded by the PSF and supported by the Municipal Association of Victoria, which has seen Manningham Council lay a new bicycle/pedestrian pathway using a 100 per cent recycled mix of
crushed glass and crushed rock. The 240 metre pathway used 15 tonnes of crushed recycled glass in the sub-base but more importantly demonstrated a practical local solution for sustainable construction by local councils. Manningham Mayor Cr Charles Pick said Council is extremely happy to be involved in the trial that promises to deliver some exceptional environmental outcomes for the
whole of Victoria. “Traditional footpath and bicycle path building materials are becoming scarce insome regions. It makes sense to use recycled crushed glass and crushed brick/concrete in these applications to save the use of virgin materials and make our
pathways more sustainable,” Cr Pick said. General Manager of the PSF Jenny Pickles said the two projects will demonstrate to local councils and construction groups that there are sustainable and viable alternatives in the market. “These two projects showcase the use of waste container glass as a new and sustainable replacement for natural sand footpath and road construction. More than 130,000 tonnes of beverage container glass is disposed of in landfills across Australia every year with three times this amount stockpiled pending a suitable use being found," said Ms Pickles.
“Using recycled crushed glass as a mix in footpaths and road base could significantly ease the burden on our landfills. We use 9 million tonnes of asphalt in Australia each year for road construction, allowing glass into the mix of even 10 per cent of these
roads will easily rid us of current stockpiles."
Countries overseas like the UK, US and our neighbours New Zealand have been using recycled glass in alternative markets within the construction sector for years, in fact more than half the glass recycled annually in New Zealand is now being recycle
into suchalternative markets.
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