St Kilda road resurfaced with 800 kilograms of recycled plastic

An innovative solution to help curb Victoria’s recycling crisis is happening in Melbourne’s south-east.

This week, Mozart Street in St Kilda is being repaved with a surface made entirely of discarded plastic car parts.

More than 800 kilograms of car parts, the equivalent of 180,000 plastic bags, which would otherwise have gone to landfill, are being used to resurface the road.

Port Phillip Mayor Dick Gross said the recycled road surface will be rolled out across the council area if the trial is successful.

“It’s replacing bitumen and it’s safer than bitumen. On site it smelt less,” he told 3AW’s Ross and John.

“We’re going to roll it out as much as possible.”

The ‘PlastiPhalt’ surface used in the trial was slightly more expensive than regular asphalt, but Cr Gross is confident the price will drop as its use grows.

“As we get economies of scale and roll it out it should be a beautiful thing,” he said.

The surface used is the second generation of PlastiPhalt, and does not contain any microplastics.

“Sometimes it’s better to be the second cab off the rank, rather than the first!,” Cr Gross said.

It’s not the first Victorian road to be made of recycled materials.

Last year, Rayfield Avenue in Cragieburn was resurfaced using a surface made of plastic bags, old printer cartridges and glass bottles.

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