Trial to see if plastic is fantastic for Fife roads

An innovative project which could see recycled plastic used to fill potholes and repair roads could soon be trialled in Fife.

Fife Council has confirmed it is examining the possibility of using old plastic bags and bottles to resurface roads in the not-too-distant future.

The local authority has approached Carlisle-based company MacRebur, which has developed a bitumen-substitute called MR6, to explore the benefits of using the product.

Hopes are high the substance could go a long way to solving the nation’s pothole crisis.

The firm has been financially backed by Sir Andy Murray and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson and Cumbria County Council carried out a successful £200,000 resurfacing scheme on the A7 in the Lake District.

Similar initiatives have been used elsewhere in Europe.

Derek Crowe, Fife’s roads and transportation service’s senior manager, said: “We’re open to trialling innovative and sustainable road surfacing materials. However, at this time of economic restrictions the cost of the trial must be economic and competitive with traditional materials.

“Once any current cost issues can be overcome we will be happy to trial such innovative processes.”

Fellow service manager David Brown has also previously said it was an interesting concept.

“We have been taking a keen interest in the process of turning recycling plastic into potential road surface and have been in touch with MacRebur with a view to carrying out a trial in Fife,” he said.

“At the moment, we are researching technical aspects of the process and looking at potential sites where this could be done.”

Laboratory tests showed the MR6 filler is 60% stronger and 10 times longer lasting than normal asphalt.

The idea was born when MacRebur’s chief executive was working in Southern India with a charity helping people who work on landfill sites and some of the waste plastics were put into potholes, petrol poured over them and the rubbish set alight until the plastics melted into the craters.

The notion has developed since, with a mix of waste plastics turned into pellets and added into the making of an enhanced asphalt road.