Old Weather Forum

... more than 100,000 dirty, disposable diapers — or “nappies,” as they are called here — are being used to help pave a road in west Wales.

This is a pilot project with intriguing environmental implications. A proliferation of diaper highways could reduce landfill waste — and influence parents around the globe weighing the vexingly difficult decision between cloth vs. disposables.

These particular diapers were rinsed — thoroughly, don’t worry. Then shredded into fibrous gray pellets and mixed with asphalt that a work crew clad in bright orange slathered over a 1.5-mile stretch of winding highway this week.

...

Several countries have experimented with roads made with plastic garbage. India led the way — glue made from shredded plastic waste has been holding together a street in Chennai since 2002, and since 2015 the Indian government has required road construction in populous urban areas to incorporate plastic waste. The Netherlands, a country of keen cyclists, opened the world’s first bicycle path made with recycled plastic. And California used discarded plastic bottles and other packaging to repave a three-lane stretch of highway.

...

Wales — a semiautonomous nation of 3 million people — has been more creative than most with its recycling policies. And along with Germany and Taiwan, it is among the top recyclers in the world.

jil wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 4:18 pm Happy all the Twosday!