NVIAMG NewRoad drives use of Recycled Plastics in Asphalt
NVI Advanced Materials Group’s NewRoad® has a track record of standing up to the elements on state highways, city and park roads, and parking lots at major vehicle dealerships and corporate campuses around the country.
The NVI Advanced Materials Group has a long successful history of turning waste plastic into performance additives for use in asphalt.
NVI Advanced Materials Group uses recycled plastic over other materials as a key ingredient in its proprietary, patent-pending formulation of NewRoad® not because it’s easy, but because it’s the right thing to do for the environment.
“Using recycled plastic, in its highly re-engineered form, saves carbon emissions and keeps plastic waste out of landfills, ditches, rivers, lakes and oceans,” said AMG President Mark Beeman. “It’s a matter of environmental responsibility in both carbon and physical waste.”
Carbon savings
When comparing asphalt mixes, NewRoad® can save up to 1.2 pounds of carbon emissions per pound of product used.
Because the roads last longer, they don’t have to be paved as often, resulting in additional carbon emissions reductions.
Putting recycling in everyday terms
A typical city road project can use the equivalent of 1 million plastic bottles or 2 million grocery bags.
Andrew LaCroix, AMG’s materials Ph.D. and chief technologist, said both water bottles and grocery store plastic bags work well as a base ingredient for NewRoad®’s high-performance formulations. AMG uses waste plastics in part because only 9% of the world’s newly produced plastic is recycled now — a problem for the environment.
“We have a counter on our website that shows the rapid rate that plastics enter the oceans. In 10 seconds, about 2,500 pounds of plastic scatters into an ocean. In less than 40 seconds, 10,000 pounds of plastic becomes a direct threat to ocean life. We are trying to help as much as we can, at our scale, to prevent that threat,” LaCroix said.
“We are proud that a product we brought to the market years ago has become the right product for these times,” Beeman said. “NewRoad® has increased the performance of asphalt while saving large quantities of plastic from oceans and landfills.”
