Thanks to new technology by Pact Group, around 570 tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic materials, including milk bottles and soft plastics, will be transformed into a recycled noise wall solution for Victoria’s Mordialloc Freeway.
The freeway wall will span a 9km stretch connecting the Mornington Peninsula Freeway to the Dingley Bypass. Each panel will be produced from 75 per cent recycled materials, including soft plastics and post-consumer HDPE.
At the end of the 40-year lifespan, each panel will be 100 per cent recyclable, demonstrating the significant opportunity for the current and future circular economy.
Sanjay Dayal, Pact Group managing director and CEO, called the new technology an inspiring innovation for Australia’s circular economy with the potential to unlock opportunities both locally and internationally.
“This project is a breakthrough for how we use materials like soft plastics, which have traditionally been one of the hardest materials to recycle,” Dayal says.
“It’s something that could easily be adopted by infrastructure projects across the country, fuelling demand for recycled materials, diverting waste from landfill, and helping to build our local manufacturing capacity and deliver new jobs in Australia’s circular economy.
“As well as helping boost the Australian manufacturing industry and broader economy, innovations like this also help us to reduce the volume of plastic imported into Australia by capitalising on locally sourced recycled materials.”
The recycled noise walls represent a potential shift in the Victorian government’s approach to noise wall composition, which has traditionally involved concrete or steel and signifies an increase in the use of recycled materials.
According to pact, the plastic-based composition of the panels offers long-term benefits that far outweigh the use of steel or concrete, including cost efficiencies, while the panels are easy to install and are low maintenance.
According to Tony Aloisio, Ecologiq director, post-consumer recycled plastics have great potential to be used in more Victorian transport projects.
“This is a crucial part of Ecologiq’s work to extract value out of our state’s waste streams and ensure that value is built back into our state’s circular economy,” continues Aloisio.
“We’re thrilled that government and industry have come together to maximise the use of recycled plastics, and we look forward to supporting similar initiatives in the future.”
The initiative was developed by Major Roads Projects Victoria (MRPV) with assistance from Ecologiq, a Victorian government initiative to optimise the use of recycled and reused materials across the state’s big build projects. Installed by AusGroup Alliance, the construction of the wall commenced in December 2020, with completion anticipated by October this year.
