For First Time, PH Making Roads, Cement Using Recycled Plastics For PRRD’s Infra Projects

For the first time, the Philippines under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is giving its garbage a second life by using it to construct much-needed infrastructure.

With the Philippine government planning a construction spree of airports, highways, rails, bridges, and dams over the next three years, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Republic Cement hope to tap the expected spike in activity to make a dent in the country’s plastic problem.

The “Build, Build, Build” program is the centerpiece of President Duterte’s blueprint for the Philippines, one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

SMC, the Philippines’ largest company, is building more than ₱900 billion worth of the government’s flagship projects, including several toll roads around the capital and a 2,400-hectare complex north of Manila that will be the country’s biggest airport.

“Republic Cement likewise expects to ‘comfortably meet’ market demand for cement, while using plastic to replace as much as 10{72520aac9c996139d3a86685c1081a66013f9c4773aa29a9e91c28d0a5525be8} of its coal requirements,” Valencia said.

“The company could process as much as four times more plastic waste, but limited garbage collection and poor segregation by households and at landfills make it difficult to sift for usable scraps,” he added. 

SMC and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. are using discarded shopping bags, sachet wrappers and plastic packaging to fire cement plants and build roads as the country embarks on an ₱8 trillion infrastructure push through 2022.

SMC has laid down its first road combining plastic scraps with asphalt as part of the company’s drive to address solid waste pollution happening in the country right now, it said in November

Some 900 kilos of plastic waste, equivalent to some 180,000 sachets and plastic bags, were mixed with asphalt on a 1,500-square meter in a new logistics center in General Trias, Cavite for use by trucks with heavy loads, including 18-wheelers and heavy equipment.

“What we want to achieve is to help address an important environmental issue, and that is plastic wastes. We want to create a sustainable use for waste plastics so that they don’t end up in landfills and our rivers and oceans,” said SMC president Ramon S. Ang in a statement.

SMC’s technology partner, global materials science company Dow, said that recycled plastic waste acts as a binder together with bitumen, in the production of asphalt.

SMC said using recycled plastics in the production process can help make roads longer lasting and more durable compared to conventional asphalt.

Independent lab testing done on SMC’s recycled plastics road asphalt showed that it exceeded the standards of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

On the other hand, for Aboitiz’s Republic Cement & Building Materials Inc., plastic serves as an alternative to coal for heating kilns used in making cement.

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Director Angela Edralin-Valencia said in an interview that the company is sourcing waste from consumer giants like Nestlé Philippines Inc. and Unilever Philippines Inc. as it processes at least 25,000 tons of plastic annually.

The two initiatives target soft plastics that are hard to recycle and make up a significant chunk of the trash piling up in Philippine landfills and clogging waterways.

The Philippines isn’t the first country to use plastics for its road construction because this same technology has already been used in Thailand, India, and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Nestlé and Unilever have launched their own collection programs, offering cash and free products like shampoo and laundry detergent — also packaged in sachets — for plastic scraps that are properly cleaned and cut.

Both companies aim to collect and process more plastic than they produce, and make 100{72520aac9c996139d3a86685c1081a66013f9c4773aa29a9e91c28d0a5525be8} of their packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, they said in separate statements.

“Nestlé is aiming for plastic neutrality, which is essentially recovering plastics equal to what we produce,” Kais Marzouki, chairman and chief executive officer of the Philippine unit, said in a statement. 

Source: Yahoo