In the early stage, Chandra Asri will use three tonness of plastic waste-asphalt mix to pave around 6.3km or roads around the its own plant, said Edi Rivai, general manager of technical services and production.
Rivai said the plastic-asphalt mix with around 6% plastic is usually around 30-40% more durable than pure asphalt.
The use of plastic-mix asphalt has been increasingly popular in Asia. In later 2015, parts of India legislated its use in hot-mix asphalt as part of a solution to decrease landfill. Road construction firms are required to incorporate waste plastic within hot mix when building bitumen roads within 50km of any city with a population of 500,000 or more. The Indian government hopes to reduce construction costs for road builders.
Indonesia’s Chandra Asri Petrochemical plans to work with the government to test the effectiveness of plastic-mixed asphalt.
