San Miguel Corp makes roads from plastic waste
San Miguel Corp and Aboitz Equity Ventures Inc are using old plastic shopping bags, sachet wrappers and plastic packaging in their asphalt road mix to meet the Philippines' need for its US$157bn ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure programme.
The companies' new road surface material was developed with Dow Chemical and was first laid in November 2019, when 900kg of plastic was incorporated to pave a 1500m2 test site near Manila.
Aboitiz's Republic Cement & Building Materials Inc also uses plastic as a coal substitute to fire its kiln and has sourced waste plastic from consumer giants such as Nestlé Philippines Inc and Unilever Philippines Inc, which has enabled it to process 25,000tpa of plastic waste. Up to 10 per cent of the company's coal is replaced now with waste plastic for fuel.
