Carlisle Street, Westbourne Park, is one of two ‘recycled road’ demonstration sites to be rolled out by City of Mitcham and its contractor Boral using recycled materials.

The second road, Simla Parade in Blackwood, will be laid with recycled ‘crumb rubber’ from waste tyres, HDPE plastic from locally generated yellow bin recyclables, and recycled glass by contractor Fulton Hogan.

City of Mitcham Mayor Dr Heather Holmes-Ross said the use of the plastic bottles in an asphalt mix road was a first for South Australia. The 450,000 bottles that will be recycled into the asphalt would reach a height of 60 kilometres if stacked on top of each other. This plastic mix is stronger and lasts longer than traditional asphalt.

“We have used recycled rubber in roads recently, with great success, but these trials incorporate new materials,” Dr Holmes-Ross said. “The current projects are part of a new initiative that was based around an open ‘expression of interest’ we put out to the state to attract new innovations of incorporating recyclables into asphalt and encouraging private industry to push the boundaries of what is achievable.”

The demonstration sites will feature asphalt innovations that include:

• Plastiphalt – a mix using locally sourced (SA) plastics such as milk bottles, strawberry tubs
• Asphalt reinforcement fabric – made from recycled 10c plastic bottles and milk cartons
• Warm mix – heating the asphalt to 30oC less than normal asphalt to create less CO2 emissions and a safer work environment
• Waste Tyre Rubber – recycling rubber tyres into the asphalt
• New traffic control safety innovation to make it safer for asphalt worker

As well as the new surface, Carlisle Street has a number of other sustainable achievements including:

• An all-concrete kerb constructed using recycled aggregate and stones, meaning less extraction of resources from quarries and lower CO2.
• Trees watered by Treenet Inlets that harvest over 200,000 litres of stormwater annually
• Stormwater pollutant removal by Raingardens at the school crossing

Read about City of Mitcham's Crumb Rubber trial here.