And it’s the latest in a list of international roads for Waterbeck based MacRebur Ltd.
Company founders Toby McCartney and Gordon Reid will travel to San Diego to oversee the trial at the University of California campus (UCSD). Roads will be laid there featuring a mix of MacRebur’s three bitumen replacement products: MR6, MR8 and MR10, which are all patented and made from waste plastics. Research teams from UCSD will thereafter monitor the road surfaces and perform various tests on the asphalt.
Toby said: “Going to the United States presents a massive opportunity for the company. Our global expansion plans are progressing rapidly with retailers now lined up on every continent and our vision of countries using their own waste plastics to improve their roads is becoming a worldwide reality.” Gordon added: “There’s already been some testing carried out in the US and it concluded that our MR range meets stringent American asphalt performance standards. We’re looking forward to demonstrating it in the Californian climate.”
Looking forward to working with the firm, Gary Oshima, UCSD’s construction commodity manager, said: “We pride ourselves in being a pioneer in new technologies and innovation and have always strived to become a leader in sustainable solutions in our classrooms, in our research institutions and in our promotion of sustainable behaviours and practices.
“Creating alternative uses for recycled plastic will be a crucial challenge that we all must resolve and maintaining over four million miles of roads in the United States will be an ever-growing problem. MacRebur’s solution addresses both of these critical challenges and UC San Diego is pleased to introduce this product to our campus to test the viability of utilising it on a larger scale in California and the rest of the country.”
California is just the start as over the next six months there are also MacRebur roads planned for Ohio and surrounding states. Furthermore, the company has more trials pending in Canada, South Africa, Slovakia, Mexico, Panama, Chile and Brazil and has already laid roads in Portugal, Australia, Turkey and the Middle East, as well as at locations around the UK.
