New asphalt mix is paving the way to eliminate plastic waste

asphalt road

Engineers at the University of Missouri have partnered with Dow and the Missouri Department of Transportation to test a new asphalt pavement mixture with plastic waste to be used on roads in the U.S. Traditional asphalt mix is created from a combination of stone, sand or gravel but now the engineers are adding various types of single-use polyethylene-based plastics into the mix. This type of plastic is durable and can be easily combined with traditional asphalt, but there are still specifications and requirements to be met before this new mix can be used commercially. Learn about how they test the asphalt in real-world scenarios.

Photo by Max Andrey from Pexels