In addition to noise corridors, recycled plastic is also being used to replace old wooden rail ties. Photo: sxc.hu
I’m not a huge fan of plastic as it is not a natural product and has been known to emit toxins ,but I do believe that we should utilize the plastic that we already have and recycle it for other uses rather than tossing it in our landfills where it will sit for hundreds or thousands of years. I’m happy to hear that there are such great uses for PVC and I hope the idea of recycling it for use in freeways and railways catches on. The article below states that using PVC in our transportation infrastructure costs 1/3 of the price of the concrete version of the same thing!
by Lori Brown
With the federal stimulus plan allowing for more highway and railway infrastructure improvements to be made, the need for project resources will inevitably increase as well.
Becoming more common is the use of recycled plastics in construction of these large-scale infrastructure projects.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or plastic #3, is a thermoplastic polymer of vinyl chloride commonly used in piping for water systems and other construction processes. The additives used in the production of PVC inhibit most large-scale, post-consumer recycling, a factor contributing to a national recycling rate of only one quarter of one percent!
