Waste chip fat could be given a novel new lease of life by recycling it to re-surface roads.With a lot of talk about potholes appearing as the snow and ice melt, one researcher could have the answer.
PhD student Helen Bailey, Research Manager at Aggregates Industries has discovered that the waste oil makes an ideal alternative to bitumen, the material which binds asphalt to the roads.
Her new product named Vegetex can be used to replace 20 per cent of the bitumen used on roads. Unlike the oil-based product, Vegetex does not require high temperatures to mix it into the asphalt and this alone should result in big energy savings. Add this to the fact that oil is a limited resource, the biofuel-based road surface has the added benefit of being renewable. According to Forum for the Future, 1.25 million tonnes of this limited bitumen is used on the UK’s roads every year, some thing has to replace it.
Instead of going to landfill or clogging drains, the waste oid can make a cheap and local solution to an expensive reliance on foreign oil imports.
Bradley Cordell, Environmental Consultant at the Transport Research Laboratory told Forum for the Future that “there is little in the ‘negatives’ column” for Vegetex, “providing that the recyclability and durability of road courses are not detrimentally affected, and that waste oil is not removed from established recycling streams which yield greater environmental benefits”.
