Vancouver First City to Use Recycled Plastic in Asphalt

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This is a compelling applicationof recycled plastic.  The fact that itsaves 20% in fuel costs and can be applied in colder weather are both majorpayoffs.  Let us hope then that it standsup.
It also surely can be used toprocess plastic waste not otherwise properly usable.  That it is wax like suggests some sort ofinterim refining for the task.  All thisget a problem to where it is an asset. The market size is likely larger than any of us understand and everyrecycled road bed will soon be adopting this I am sure.
At least every city is collectingwaste plastic as a separate stream so there is plenty of feedstock.

Vancouver first city to use recycled plastic inasphalt
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/vancouver-first-city-recycled-plastic-asphalt-203127143.html
Vancouver will be the first-ever city to use blue box recycled plasticsas asphalt mix on the city's roads, in a move engineers say is a green stepforward.
Old plastic milk jugs, yogurt containers and other post-consumerrecyclable material will be ground up and made into a wax which then used as awarm mix for asphalt.
"It's actually a lot like crayon wax and what we are doing withthis is putting it in the asphalt which we are putting down today,"explained Vancouver city engineer Peter Judd at a Kingsway paving site Thursdaymorning.
For asphalt to be laid properly, it needs an additive to reduce theviscosity, or make the material go down smoother.
This mix makes up approximately one per cent of a typical asphaltbatch. The raw cost of the recycled plastic is three per cent higher thantypical asphalt mix, but there are significant savings over time, said Judd.
"We are using about 20 per cent less fuel at the asphalt plantthan we would otherwise be using so an enormous saving in fuel costs andenormous saving in the green house gases that are associated with that,"said Judd.
Judd said the new recycled ingredient also allows crews to applyasphalt on cool days, which wasn't possible before.
The city is piloting the mix in several parts of the city, and Juddsaid they believe it will be as durable as what's currently used.
The recycled plastic mix is now sourced from Ontario, but the city hopes to produce itlocally in the future.