By Luke Voogt
About 15,296 tonnes of recycled asphalt, concrete and plastic helped build and repair roads, athletics tracks and family centres across Geelong in 2019-20, according to council.
Council’s annual report states the organisation used 8745 tonnes of recycled asphalt materials to build and renew roads, footpaths and street furniture, exceeding its initial goal of 8000 tonnes.
City Hall saved a further 3.5 tonnes of plastic from landfill by using PlastiPhalt to maintain about 1100 metres of road.
Workers trialled the material, which contains recycled plastic, on Roslyn Road in Highton, Moorabool Street in central Geelong and Purnell Road in Corio earlier this year.
Council also recycled almost 6548 tonnes of concrete, according to the report, more than doubling its initial “baseline expectation” of 3000 tonnes.
Green concrete, which includes waste materials, was used to construct Bella Wiyn Birralee Family Centre in Drysdale and Korayn Birralee Family Centre in Corio, both of which opened this year.
Workers also reused seawall concrete blocks from Eastern Beach at Western Beach Park last year.
In October 2019 council unveiled a new “state-of-the-art” athletics track at Goldsworthy Reserve, Corio, containing recycled rubber.
City services director Guy Wilson-Browne said council was constantly investigating new and innovative ways to avoid waste and use recycled products and materials in projects.
City Hall assessed every project for opportunities to use recycled materials during construction and include items such as recycled plastic bollards and benches, Mr Wilson-Browne said.
“We aim to be a leader in this very important space by setting high environmental standards for projects and sustainable solutions.”
This May council awarded a tender to five businesses to provide asphalt products using innovative recycling methods.
The successful tenderers are currently researching the use of foam bitumen containing recycled road pavements and asphalt, and GripPhalt, which uses up to 90 per cent of recycled and renewable material.
One business has committed to trialling glass in base layers of pavements in greater Geelong.
City Hall has also submitted grant applications to support the use of crumb rubber mix and recycled asphalt pavement to pave roads.
Council adopted its new Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2020-30 this April.
