A few years ago, engineer Toby McCartney was working in southern India with a charity that aided pickers who worked at landfill sites harvesting reusable items and selling them. McCartney discovered that plastic waste they retrieved was being put into potholes in roads, doused with gasoline, and set afire. When the plastic melted into the holes and then hardened, it filled them.

幾年前，工程師托比.邁克卡爾特內(nèi)在印度南部工作，義務(wù)幫助那些在垃圾填筑地工作的挖掘工人，他們得到了大量的可利用的物品，并且賣(mài)掉了它們。邁克卡爾特內(nèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)這些取回的廢棄物被填到路上的一些坑里。潑灑上汽油，然后引火點(diǎn)燃。塑料融入坑里并且變硬后填充滿了整個(gè)坑穴。

When McCartney returned to Scotland, he told two of his friends about what he had seen. As MacRebur co-founder and chief operating officer Gordon Reid recalls, they decided that it would work better to use plasticwaste to create a new type of material specifically designed for use in roads. After a year of research, they developed a method for transforming a mix of industrial and consumer plastic waste into pellets of a new material that could replace bitumen, the oil-based sealing material that holds asphalt together in roads.

當(dāng)邁克卡爾特內(nèi)回到蘇格蘭的時(shí)候，他告訴兩個(gè)朋友關(guān)于他所看到的一切。正如“馬克.瑞伯”公司的共同創(chuàng)立者和首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官戈登.雷德呼吁的那樣，他們已經(jīng)決定用塑料廢棄物來(lái)制造出一種新型的材料專門(mén)用于道路建設(shè)。在進(jìn)行了一年的研究后，他們找到了一種方法來(lái)把工業(yè)和日常利用過(guò)的塑料垃圾的混合物轉(zhuǎn)化為一種新材料的方法，這種新材料能夠代替瀝青，這種油基的的密封材料能夠把瀝青粘合到一起，運(yùn)用到道路建設(shè)上。

Since MacRebur started operations in April 2016, the company's recycled plastic road-building material has been used to build roadways in places rangi***************ia to Dubai, according to the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper.

根據(jù)蘇格蘭報(bào)紙“Daily Record”的報(bào)道，自從“馬克.瑞伯”公司在2016年4月開(kāi)始這個(gè)項(xiàng)目以來(lái)，公司的可再生塑料道路建設(shè)材料已經(jīng)被用在了澳大利亞和迪拜的車(chē)道上。

"We've got roads on every continent," Reid notes. "And we've had interest from round about 50 countries in the world. The company currently is having discussions with a university in California about building a test road to demonstrate that its plastics are compatible with standards in the U.S.," he says.

雷德說(shuō)：“我們已經(jīng)在所有的大洲上都用取得了建設(shè)這種道路的資格。我們已經(jīng)打算在世界上的50來(lái)個(gè)國(guó)家使用這種材料建設(shè)道路。公司現(xiàn)在和加利福尼亞大學(xué)進(jìn)行磋商，打算建造一條測(cè)試道路，來(lái)證明塑料和美國(guó)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是相匹配的。”

The Plastic and Bitumen Mixture

塑料和瀝青混合

According to Reid, using recycled plastic for road building sounds simple, but it actually requires a complex process to create the right material. "Different plastics do different things to bitumen," he explains. "If you use the wrong mix, it actually can make the bitumen more brittle."

根據(jù)雷德的說(shuō)法，使用可再生塑料用于道路建設(shè)聽(tīng)上去是一件簡(jiǎn)單的事情，但是實(shí)際上這需要復(fù)雜的工序來(lái)制造這種材料?！安煌乃芰蠈?duì)瀝青產(chǎn)生的作用是不同的。”他解釋到：“如果你的混合方法錯(cuò)了，你可能會(huì)讓瀝青易碎而不堪使用。”

MacRebur avoids using PET bottles and other types of plastic that are easily recycled, and instead concentrates on types of waste plastic that might otherwise end up buried in the ground. Reid declined to go into too much detail, so as not to reveal too much about MacRebur's proprietary process.

“馬克.瑞伯”公司避免使用聚對(duì)苯二甲酸乙二醇酯的瓶子和其它各種容易回收利用的塑料，而致力于使用那些本該被填埋掉的塑料廢棄物。雷德拒絕透露更多的細(xì)節(jié)，如果講得太多會(huì)透露太多“馬克.瑞伯”公司的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)內(nèi)容。

In addition to keeping plastic out of landfills, the company's plastic road materials can save about 1 ton (.907 metric tons) in carbon dioxide output for each ton of bitumen that the plastic replaces, according to this fact sheetfrom MacRebur's website.

此外，使用從垃圾填筑地挖出的塑料，公司的制造出的塑料道路材料每代替一噸的瀝青就可以減少1噸（907公噸）的二氧化碳排放，這在“馬克.瑞伯”公司網(wǎng)站上的情況說(shuō)明書(shū)里有所說(shuō)明。

MacRebur laying a road in Bahrain.
MACREBUR

“馬克.瑞伯”公司在巴林鋪設(shè)道路

The company has developed different types of road-building plastic for different environments. One variety is designed for roads in places such as the Middle East, where more tensile strength is needed to resist asphalt's tendency to deform from heat. Another is designed to be more flexible, and resist the freeze-thaw cycle in colder places such as Canada or Scotland, Reid says.

公司制造出了不同種類(lèi)的道路建設(shè)塑料以適應(yīng)不同的環(huán)境。其中一種是為像中東這樣的地方的道路設(shè)計(jì)的，在那里可伸展的強(qiáng)度是必要的，這能夠讓瀝青能夠避免因?yàn)槭軣嶙冃?。另一種被設(shè)計(jì)得更加柔韌，為了抵御加拿大或者蘇格蘭這樣的較為寒冷的地方產(chǎn)生的凍融現(xiàn)象的影響

MacRebur's current products are capable of replacing between six and 20 percent of the bitumen in roads, but Reid is hopeful that within two years, improved versions will replace as much as 50 percent.

“馬克.瑞伯”公司目前的產(chǎn)品能夠代替掉道路上6%到20%的瀝青，但是雷德希望在2年內(nèi)，改進(jìn)版的材料能夠代替掉50%的瀝青。

Reid says that MacRebur's plastic road materials physically bind with the bitumen, which prevents it from breaking loose and getting into the environment. "The plastic melts into the bitumen and it becomes the same, since they're both hydrocarbons," he explains.

雷德說(shuō)：“馬克.瑞伯”公司的塑料道路材料在物理上和瀝青相結(jié)合，這能夠防止地面材料松掉，可以很好地適應(yīng)當(dāng)?shù)氐沫h(huán)境?！八芰先诨M(jìn)瀝青里，成為了和瀝青一樣的成分，他們都是碳?xì)浠衔??！彼忉尩健?br/>

Plastic Pins

塑料別針

In the U.S., plastic already is being used in road maintenance. University of Texas at Arlington civil engineering professor Sahadat Hossain, director of the school's Solid Waste Institute for Sustainability, has turned to recycled plastic as a way to solve the problem of unstable soil on highway slopes, which eventually can cause the road surface to fail as well. He's developed a technology for taking plastic from landfills and then recycling it to manufacture giant pins that are inserted in the failing soil to stabilize it.

在美國(guó)，塑料已經(jīng)被用在了道路維護(hù)上。德克薩斯大學(xué)阿靈頓分校土木工程教授薩哈達(dá)特.侯賽因同時(shí)也是學(xué)校的“固體廢棄物可再生研究研究所”的負(fù)責(zé)人，他已經(jīng)用可再生塑料解決高速公路斜坡的土地不穩(wěn)定的問(wèn)題，這種不穩(wěn)定會(huì)讓路面塌陷。他研發(fā)了一項(xiàng)技術(shù)，從垃圾填筑地挖出廢棄塑料，然后回收再利用它們，來(lái)制造巨大的別針來(lái)固定不穩(wěn)定的地面。

The recycled plastic pin "has been successfully tested as a laterally loaded pile in different highway slope stabilization projects in the state of Texas, Iowa and Missouri," Hossain explains in an email. "The Texas Department of Transportation has adopted the recycled plastic pin as one of their approved slope stabilization methods." It takes just three to four minutes to install each of the pins in the ground, so an entire unstable area can be shored up in a few days, he says.

這種可再生塑料別針已經(jīng)成功地經(jīng)受了測(cè)試的考驗(yàn)，已經(jīng)被用在了德克薩斯州和密蘇里州的各種不同的公路斜坡穩(wěn)定工程上。侯賽因在一封電子郵件中說(shuō)：“德克薩斯交通部已經(jīng)采納了這種可再生塑料別針作為他們批準(zhǔn)通過(guò)的穩(wěn)定斜坡的方法。”只需花費(fèi)3到4分鐘就可以把這些別針裝入地面，這樣在短短的幾天內(nèi)整個(gè)不穩(wěn)定的地面都會(huì)被支撐起來(lái)。

"Once [the pin] is installed into the ground, it is less susceptible to degradation, which makes it a long-lasting solution for slope repair," Hossain says.

侯賽因說(shuō)：“（別針）一旦裝入了地面，就不容易毀壞了，它能夠在斜坡修復(fù)過(guò)程中表現(xiàn)出很強(qiáng)的堅(jiān)固性?！?br/>
According to Hossain's UTA web page, each recycled pin utilizes about 500 plastic soda bottles. At one of the demonstration sites, Hossain's research group put 600 plastic pins into the ground, making use of 300,000 plastic bottles that otherwise would have ended up in landfills.

根據(jù)侯賽因UTA網(wǎng)頁(yè)的描述，每個(gè)可再生別針使用大約500個(gè)塑料汽水瓶。在其中一個(gè)施工用地上，侯賽因的研究團(tuán)隊(duì)用了600個(gè)塑料別針買(mǎi)入地面，使用了30萬(wàn)個(gè)本該被填埋的塑料瓶。

Hossain thinks that the Chinese government's recent decision to ba***************astic waste for recycling could create an opportunity for U.S. entrepreneurs to make road materials. China imported 776,000 metric tons of waste plastic from the U.S. in 2016, according to Chemical and Engineering News.

侯賽因認(rèn)為中國(guó)政府最新的禁止進(jìn)口可再生塑料垃圾的決定對(duì)于美國(guó)企業(yè)家來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)機(jī)遇，這些垃圾可以用作道路建設(shè)材料。根據(jù)“化學(xué)和工程新聞”的報(bào)道，中國(guó)在2016年從美國(guó)進(jìn)口了77萬(wàn)6錢(qián)公噸的塑料垃圾。

"I am positive more and more roads will be constructed using recycled plastics," Hossain says.

侯賽因說(shuō)：“我對(duì)越來(lái)越多的道路使用塑料進(jìn)行鋪設(shè)報(bào)以樂(lè)觀積極的展望?！?br/>
But more work needs to be done to develop *****************uding full-scale testing and life-cycle analyses of roads containing plastic materials, he says.

但是有更多的工作需要去做，以便研究出新方法，還有進(jìn)行全面的測(cè)試和使用塑料材料的道路的使用壽命分析。

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