This road is literally rubbish

From Melbourne's The Age newspaper:

To the naked eye Rayfield Avenue looks like any other residential street in Craigieburn, a suburb in Melbourne's north.

Few visitors would realise they are driving along a road that is quite literally rubbish.

In May, Hume City became the first council in Australia to trial a new form of asphalt – known as Plastiphalt – that is made out of plastic bags and glass bottles diverted from landfill.

The project has put Rayfield Avenue on the map. It has been mentioned in conferences as far afield as Sweden and Nigeria, and Hume City has fielded lots of phone calls from local councils wanting to know more.

The 300-metre stretch of road contains 200,000 plastic bags, 63,000 glass bottles and toner from 4500 used printer cartridges mixed with asphalt.

Cr Porter says the rubbish used in the road is equivalent to that collected in the recycle bins of Rayfield Avenue residents over 10 years.

“We think that is something to be pretty proud of,” he says.

The scourge of plastic pollution – 4 billion bags are used each year in Australia with most ending up in landfill – has become even more pressing following China’s crackdown on imported waste.

[Read more here]

Jim Appleby of Downer, Hume mayor Geoff Porter and Peter Tamblyn of Close the Loop on Rayfield Avenue.

Photo: Justin McManus