Penrith roadway paved with glass

Thursday, 5 September 2019

Penrith City Council is paving one of its streets with glassphalt, an environmentally sustainable alternative to the traditional asphalt.

“Asphalt uses sand in the road paving mix, but glassphalt uses ground glass,” said Penrith Mayor Ross Fowler OAM.

“Around 50 tonnes of ground glass will be used to pave Stafford Street, which is a better outcome than the glass ending up as landfill.

“To get an idea of just how much glass is involved, 25 tonnes of glass is equivalent to just more than 113,600 stubbies – some 4,700 slabs.

“Glass does not break down in the environment.  Glass up to 2,500 years old has been found in archaeological digs around the world.

“This not only shows that glass in landfill never goes away, but also indicates just how durable it is as a road base,” Cr Fowler said.

Penrith Council General Manager Warwick Winn said the use of glassphalt shows Council is continuing to embrace more sustainable practices whenever possible.

“Council’s tendered road service contractor recently upgraded its plant to make glassphalt, and so we are trialling their product now that it is available,” Mr Winn said.

“Glassphalt is already being successfully used by other NSW local councils and meets current standards for road base material.

“In an average year, Council resurfaces or reconstructs some 30 km of roads and by increasing the use of glassphalt rather than asphalt, we will be doing a lot to reduce the amount of waste glass in landfill,” he said.

Photo: Stafford Street where the new glassphalt the is being laid.

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Thursday, 5 September 2019.