Waste driving region's roads green

More than 130 tonnes of waste have been saved from landfill and joined Moreton Bay region’s growing list of ‘green roads’.

Esplanade at Deception Bay, pictured above, has been resurfaced using new ‘green’ asphalt made from the equivalent of 1627 full wheelie bins of rubbish.

Brays Rd, Griffin has also been resurfaced using the same process. Both follow King St, Clontarf which went 'green' two years ago.

Mayor Peter Flannery said: “We have been working with Alex Fraser Asphalt and Austek Asphalt to roll out sustainable road resurfacing to help Moreton Bay green as we grow.

“We’re paving the way by rolling out green road surfaces made partly with recycled materials from glass bottles, plastic containers and old car tyres.

“It’s a win-win because it stops recyclable material ending up in landfill and it helps us reduce our carbon emissions at the same time.”

About 72,000 glass bottles and 15,000 milk containers were recycled for the Esplanade resurfacing, said Alex Fraser Queensland Area Manager John Wanneck.

“The asphalt plant that produced the material is powered by an oil recovered from old tyres, further reducing our environmental impact,” he said.

“Roughly 3000 car tyres were recycled, saving more than 1000 litres of fuel and 4000 kilograms of carbon.”

Austek Asphlet Business Manager David Simmons said Brays Rd, Griffin doubles now also has an anti-skid surface.

“We repurposed 550 old tyres in this one project alone which gave us a savings of 2,672 kilograms of CO2e,” he said.

“This road surface helps prevent accidents and improves community safety because it is super durable and has a high skid resistance.

“One of the benefits we get from these tyre-derived products is it lasts longer in the road, which provides greater value to Council’s ratepayers as well.”