CONSTRUCTION and civil engineering company Setia Bintang Engineering Sdn Bhd plans to pave roads in Malaysia using plastic waste, saving thousands of tonnes of plastics from landfills and reduce pollution.
“Waste and unrecyclable plastics can still be useful to produce high performance modified asphalt to pave roads with the use of Plastic Binder Extender (PBE) technology,” Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said yesterday.
The technology is developed by Scottish company MacRebur which created the BPE which aims to help solve the global plastic waste issue.
Currently, Setia Bintang is appointed exclusive distributor for MacRebur in Malaysia and other territories such as Thailand and Indonesia.
According to Setia Bintang executive director Izran Al-Amin, one tonne of the PBE MacRebur asphalt uses 80,000 plastic bottles or 740,541 of single-use plastic bags.
“The PBE MacRebur extends the life cycle of asphalt beyond the conventional road pavement. Incidence of potholes can be reduced and the process of mixing, laying, rolling and compacting remains the same as the conventional method,” Izan said.
In October 2020, Setia Bintang laid a pilot stretch of 117 metres stretch with PBE MacRebur using 810kg of plastic waste, located at the KM 21 layby on the Kuala Lumpur – Karak Highway in the Gombak area. – Nov 26, 2020
