Plastic Road: a good development for Thailand?
The Dutch embassy in Bangkok posted a message on Facebook about the development of sustainable roads made of recycled plastic by KWS Infra, a subsidiary of VolkerWessels. The message was, I think, mainly intended to point out the innovative knowledge of Dutch companies.
However, it could be an excellent solution for Thailand to tackle the huge mountain of plastic waste that is produced in Thailand. The project is still in its infancy, so nothing can be said about the cost yet, but the Dutch Embassy has a great task to promote the PlasticRoad in Thailand and neighboring countries. Read the VolkerWessels press release below.
Concept
The concept for the development of sustainable roads made of recycled plastic, called PlasticRoad, was developed by KWS Infra; the largest road builder in the Netherlands and a VolkerWessels company.
“Plastic offers a lot of advantages over current road constructions, both during construction and maintenance,” says Rolf Mars, director of KWS Infra. “In addition, it is much more sustainable and the PlasticRoad construction keeps space available in the 'hollow' roads that can be used, for example, for cables and pipes or as water storage.”
Unique
The PlasticRoad concept fits in well with developments such as cradle-to-cradle and The Ocean Cleanup; the initiative to clear the seas of 'plastic soup'. Recycled plastic and plastic are processed into prefab road parts, which are applied in their entirety. Thanks to the prefab production, not only can the quality (skid resistance, water drainage, etc.) be better guaranteed, roads can also be constructed much faster. “As far as we know, we are the first in the world to do this,” says Mars.
Tripled
PlasticRoad is also a virtually maintenance-free product. It is insensitive to corrosion and weather influences. For example, it can easily handle temperatures from -40 to +80 degrees Celsius and is much more resistant to chemical attack. We estimate that the lifespan of roads can be tripled.
Hol
A major advantage of PlasticRoad is the hollow construction that is easy to install on a sandy surface. Other elements such as traffic loops, measuring equipment and connections for light poles are therefore easy to integrate prefab. Even more important, however, is that the hollow space in the road can also be used as a water storage or gutter for cables and pipes, for example. Due to the light weight, installation is not only easier, but it is also ideal for less load-bearing subsoil. That applies to at least half of the Netherlands.
Schedule
KWS Infra is not yet able to provide a planning for the construction of the first plastic road. Mars: “The potential of the concept is enormous. We are currently looking for partners who want to carry out a pilot with us. In addition to manufacturers from the plastics and plastics industry, we are thinking of the recycling industry, universities and other knowledge institutions.” The municipality of Rotterdam has already registered for a trial placement. “We are very positive about the developments around PlasticRoad,” says Jaap Peters of the municipality's engineering office. “Rotterdam is a city that is open to experiments and innovative applications in practice. As a result, we also have a test room (Lab op Straat) available, where an innovation like this can be tested.”
Benefits PlasticRoad
- PlasticRoad consists of 100 percent recycled material.
- Prefab plates that are more resistant to weather conditions and wear.
- Roads can be built in weeks instead of months.
- Roads last three times longer.
- Less and shorter road maintenance, so fewer or no traffic jams and/or diversions for motorists.
- The hollow construction provides space for cables, pipes and water, for example.
- Light construction that is easy to install on a sandy surface.
- Fewer freight loads, so less construction traffic.
- The use of plastic makes a series of new innovations possible: including energy generation, ultra-quiet roads, heated roads, modular construction.
Reader question: Do you also think it's a good idea for Thailand?
Source: press release from Volker Wessels website
It sounds more like an April Fool's joke weighing plastic.
I can't imagine a quality road, made of a mishmash of all kinds of plastic.
The skid resistance of plastic also seems to me to be difficult, and then you also get things like water drainage and repairs to the road and accessibility of the cables under the road.
If you've had to cut open the road once to get to those cables, it seems to me difficult to repair and restore strength.
By the way, I don't see on the drawing where the water should go when a Thai downpour comes over it.
How long would that plastic last in the bright sun? Wouldn't the plasticizer disappear very quickly? And I think only new material will be used for this plastic. I don't see the waste problem solved yet.
Indeed, I think the effect of the scorching sun on that plastic will be the biggest problem
Read it years ago in the Netherlands. At the time they were considering building a test road, I think in the north of the Netherlands. Never heard anything about it again. Maybe it's not that simple after all.
Where is the ' ridden plastic ' ? these plastic roads also wear out.
A week after I read the KWS report in the Telegraaf, the Thai channel showed a video of a Thai professor who also talked about incorporating plastic into the roads.
This man pretended it was his idea, but would process the plastic in the asphalt.
If the roads were to become sustainable, it would be an outright disaster for the Thai road builders who can now renovate the roads about every 5 years.
But I think the Thais are in favor of a plastic system.
This would be great for Thailand because then all cables can be placed in the hollow in the road surface and an automatic rain drain
I don't see that automatic rainwater drain yet.
It is also not signed.
But suppose that rainwater drains are the hollow spaces in the middle of the road, how are you going to clean them?
A drain large enough to collect all the rainwater on the road also fills the place with sand, soil, stones, branches and waste.
So they will be clogged in no time, especially considering the drawn height (+/- 20 cm?) of that drain and hardly any end, because that road is horizontal. (or should do)
I believe the inventors have already considered the objections raised here.
Without that , no investor could be found and this would not have been announced yet .
The embassy has other things to do.
Right, but the Dutch wouldn't be Dutch if they didn't bring up all the negative points first.
I myself worked a lot with recycled plastic more than 30 years ago, including building children's playgrounds with posts and sleepers recycled with plastic and old car tires, which are still there after 30 years in all weathers.
Gringo, for me it's not a question of whether or not it's good for Thailand or for any other country. For me, the question is whether one should take it seriously.
It is a project from the drawing board, or rather from a suggestion box.
– Plastic does not let water through, resulting in aquaplaning. The property is precisely contrary to the purpose of ZOAB, which is not only permeable to water, but also sound-absorbing.
– Plastic, like asphalt, is not resistant to a car that caught fire and is itself flammable.
– Permanent load and vibrations from road traffic are disastrous for plastic with hollow spaces. You don't have to have an imagination to understand what that will entail.
– Cabling and piping must be as resistant as possible to physical damage and be easily accessible and replaceable. In a closed hollow space of a plastic "road surface" with all the aforementioned dangers, it is obvious that it would be better to lie next to the road in the ground.
– The other “benefits” are (also) not substantiated in any way.
A solution can be devised for many problems. But whether it is still so beneficial is the question.
There is a lot of plastic waste. Very little plastic waste can be made suitable for a new high-quality product. That may mean that we have to generate much more plastic waste to make a few kilometers away with it.
I think it's a nice idea, but impracticable in a practical sense.
Thank you for your detailed response. I understand the objections raised by you and other commenters, but look at it another way.
KWS Infra has developed an idea to turn a problem into a solution. If the gigantic plastic waste mountain in the world, including Thailand, could be used for good in this way, it is certainly worth investigating and further developing.
A marketing expert once said: “Any plan can easily be torpedoed with 100 arguments, that is of no use. What I want to hear is only one good argument for the plan to be implemented in any way”.
KWS Infra has already indicated that the project is still in its early stages and that partners are being sought to carry out further development. It is still too early to cheer, but also too early to abandon the idea.
Whether it ever comes to actual plastic roads, time will tell. In my opinion, KWS Infra deserves the time and resources to find a technically and economically sound solution for the excess plastic.
Dear Gringo,
First of all, I would like to say that I really appreciate your input to the blog. Your responses are generally nuanced. I'd miss that one if you stopped.
Of course, a good idea deserves elaboration. But we have to be realistic. Eric Sr. already noted that he had read the idea years ago. Apparently it's not a new idea. At that time, according to Erik, people thought about constructing a test road, but that did not happen then. Money is needed to develop an idea. Money is only made available if an idea can actually be viable. Every expert will point out the actual unfeasibility and then no money will be made available. I also refer to an earlier topic about PVC in the sea to promote "recovery" of the coral. That idea, too, will not produce the results needed to make money available. A good idea is to rid the oceans of stray plastic. That idea appears to be successful, so that money has been released for it through Crowfunding.
The plastic waste can very well be reused at relatively little cost for products that do not have to meet such high quality requirements as those for a road surface. Wim van Beveren already noted that he has been working a lot with recycled plastic for quite some time (according to him more than 30 years ago), for example for building children's playgrounds. Municipalities have been using bollards made of recycled plastic for years, and you can see more and more of these types of products in hardware stores. There are enough low- and average-qualified products to clean up the mountain of plastic waste. I therefore believe that no money should be invested in unwholesome products.
In addition, the old idea in a new guise did not just get publicity. Volker Stevin's order book is less filled than desirable. The company has every interest in encouraging the government in particular to pump money into projects, Volker Stevin projects of course. But it is public money. So for me the cut on the pouch. If Volker Stevin is so sure of the feasibility of such a project, then they should finance it themselves and not place the risks on others (such as the government/community). Maybe it's a fun project for LEGO.
Thank you for your kind first paragraph. I'm not a hardliner, so you can always expect a nuanced judgment from me.
There is no question of stopping, writing for the blog is much too much fun, I can recommend it to everyone.
As for the rest, I'll just repeat what I said earlier: “Time will tell
It is not a spearhead policy for Thailand to be the best boy in the class when it comes to environmental technology, so they will wait and see whether we in the Netherlands, when we have ten years of experience with such roads, will still build them.
And right they are.
Dear French,
Many Thai government policies are not “spearhead policies”. Two or three circumstances should be. These are road and traffic policy and water policy. The limited resources should therefore not be invested in "defense" playthings, but in good (asphalt) roads and a safe traffic policy, as well as the prevention of the annual floods. For these policy components, they should spend more money that will pay for itself in the long term. The Netherlands is a knowledge country in these areas and could make a good contribution to this.
If the Thais are smart (they're not stupid) they wait for the results and experiences of our plastic roads. But there are not yet (as far as I know). So my question is, why do we want to sell plastic roads in Thailand, if we can't sell the system to the paving stones here?
On the other hand, it would be a one-time opportunity for Thailand to finally clean up their own stray plastic and turn it into roadways. It would do the country good on that point.
I would take a positive view of the KWS project and help think about meaningful solutions. Hopefully we will get a partnership with Studio Roosegaarde, from Daan Roosegaarde with, among other things, his idea about “smart highways”, interesting to visit his site.
Martin