Could the ‘Plastic Road Company’ Be Coming to Tri-Cities?
Have you ever looked at a plastic water bottle and thought, "I wonder if I could drive on this?"
Yes, you can. But it's not as crazy of an idea as you think. In fact, it's proven to be a successful concept in Scotland and the company behind it is looking to potentially expand to Tri-Cities.
MacRebur is "The Plastic Road Company" and they've been getting world-wide coverage. Toby McCartney got the idea when he went to India and he saw people take garbage and use it to fill potholes.
The roads MacRebur makes are still made up of most of the ingredients as every other road, but they take waste plastic (plastic that can't be recycled) and shred it up. The plastic is turned into little pebbles and added to the mix. The waste plastic pebbles effectively replace bitumen in the mix. The road is mostly the same as any other, but the new formula has benefits. The roads wear down less, meaning FEWER POTHOLES and less money spent on repairs. Plus, they're effectively recycling plastic that couldn't have been recycled before.
If MacRebur opened a plant in Tri-Cities, there would be about 8-12 job openings with room to grow. The first MacRebur plant opened in the United States was in San Diego, and CEO Toby McCartney hopes to expand to every state one day. So far on his trip, he's visited Washington, Oregon, and several other states.