This company turns plastic bottles into new roads. They’re looking for a Tri-Cities site
A Scottish company may build a plant in the Tri-Cities to turn plastic bottles into plastic roads.
Richland was one of a series of stops for the Toby McCartney and Topher Morrison with MacRebur — The Plastic Road Company as they scout new sites for what may be the future of road construction.
The company is in the middle of an aggressive expansion plan as they look at opening one new 20,000-square-foot facility in each state.
The locations are expected to employ at least eight to 12 people with the possibility of growing, Morrison said.
McCartney and two others developed a process to turn shredded plastic into small chips that can be added to asphalt mix. The chips replace part of the substance that binds asphalt together.
The company started after McCartney spent time working with a charity in India and saw people combining diesel and waste plastics to fill potholes.
McCartney and his friends came up with a process to do something similar without it being toxic.
After the company won Richard Branson’s VOOM Innovation Award in 2016, its story was picked up by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Then it was noticed in the United States.
“We’re in every continent,” McCartney told the Tri-City Herald. “We have roads down and partners as far and wide as Australia, New Zealand and all over Europe and places like Turkey, South Africa and Canada.”
While most companies are quiet about their expansion plans, MacRebur said, “We want community buy-in ... It helps us take the temperature of the area. We want to create local roads with local waste.”
During their visit, they toured several western states, including Washington and Oregon, before going to an pavement convention in Las Vegas.
They are looking for sites with access to plenty of plastic waste.
Morrison explained they don’t want to add to environmental problems by shipping in plastic from somewhere else.
A road ahead of them
While the company recently opened it’s first U.S. plant in San Diego, it may still be a while before plastic roads come to Washington state.
Morrison said they are still working on getting approval from the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Getting it added to the department’s list of 1,300 qualified products takes time and testing, the state said.
“Nothing goes fast, and nor should it. They have a responsibility to the state to make sure that the materials are safe to drive on,” Morrison said.
While local and state roads aren’t able to add the material, Morrison said they could bring it to parking lots, driveways and other private paving projects.
The plastics don’t wash out of the asphalt and the chemical process the plastic goes through doesn’t let off harmful fumes.
If they settle on Richland, Morrison said they can set up a plant quickly.