Hard Plastic Bottles, Reborn as a Bridge
The town of York, Me., is putting up what could be a bridge to a better future, not because of it where it goes but because of what it is made of: plastic.
Plastic bottles have been the bane of landfills for decades because they do not degrade. To find other uses for these strong and persistent materials, some manufacturers have melted them into boards for beach house decks or spun them into clothing materials.
But while plastics recycling has become more common since the 1980s, far more could be done, environmental policy makers say. The nation recycles only 27.5 percent of its hard plastic bottle waste, versus 71 percent of its newspapers and 67 percent of its steel cans, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 figures.
Now comes Axion International, a New Jersey-based company founded in 2007 that has developed a process to make a building material that is strong enough to supplant steel and concrete but is made out of discarded laundry detergent containers and milk cartons.
Such plastic building material also could be fabricated into railroad ties, sound barriers along highways, and I-beams, among other uses. In most cases, “the product costs a little less than steel and concrete.”
(via Hard Plastic Bottles, Reborn as a Bridge - NYTimes.com)
