Recycled materials
Every year, our use of recycled materials to rebuild and repair our roads saves thousands of tonnes of waste from going into landfill.
With traditional roadbuilding materials becoming increasingly difficult and more expensive to source and growing stockpiles of recyclable materials, the Victorian Government is using more and more recycled materials in its roadbuilding program.
A diverse range of recycled materials including rubber, glass, plastic, printer cartridges, geotextile fabric and even building supplies including asphalt, concrete and brick sourced from demolition sites has been repurposed for road building and repairs across some of Victoria’s busiest roads.
In the past five years, we’ve used more than 100,000 tonnes of recycled material to fix Victoria’s roads across a range of projects, including:
- Three tonnes of shredded soft plastics sourced from disused car components used to resurface a section of the iconic Great Ocean Road at Lorne;
- An asphalt mix containing 1 million recycled glass bottles, 746,000 plastic bags, 420 ton of reclaimed asphalt and 21,800 printer cartridges combined was used to resurface a section of the Hume Highway at Euroa.
- A three-year trial of using crumb rubber sourced from 1600 tyres to resurface a busy section of Boundary Road in East Bentleigh – the largest trial of its kind anywhere in the world.
- Using 540 tonnes of fine crushed glass to rebuild a section of the Western Freeway near Bacchus Marsh.
As well as improving the sustainability of Victoria’s road maintenance program, using recycled materials can often be more cost-effective than using traditional materials, and in some cases, can also extend the lifespan of the road itself.
Before being approved for use in our road repairs, asphalt mixes containing recycled materials undergo stringent testing that assesses a range of attributes, including durability, strength, and performance in extreme hot and cold conditions.
The renewed focus on using recycled materials is also providing a new avenue for Victoria’s recycling sector, helping to support hundreds of jobs across the state.
More waste than ever before is being integrated into transport projects as part of the Victorian Government’s Recycled First Policy.
The policy requires bidders to optimise their use of recycled and reused content and will apply to all transport operational and maintenance projects from 2022.