Penrith City Council has announced a recycling project that uses takeaway coffee cups in sustainable road surfaces in Sydney’s west.
The council has partnered with State Asphalt Services to resurface 390 metres of Jamison Road at South Penrith and 350 metres of Swallow Drive at Erskine Park using PAK-PAVETM, a road surface that includes a mixture containing almost 136,000 coffee cups.
The cups being used in the PAK-PAVETM surface are collected through Simply Cups, an initiative by Closed Loop, with 85 per cent of the paper cups collected for recycling in the Penrith LGA in 2022 being used in these roads.
“The Simply Cups program has saved more than 30 million paper cups such as coffee cups and take-away soft drink cups from landfill since beginning in 2017,” says Closed Loop Managing Director Rob Pascoe.
“We have explored dozens of practical applications for the cups which contain very high-quality fibre but are challenging to recycle because of their waterproof lining.”
The road surface has been successful in the resurfacing of 8.4 kilometres of pavement throughout the Penrith Local Government Area (LGA).
“With over 1208 kilometres of roads maintained by Penrith City Council, and countless kilometres of state roads in our LGA, we have the opportunity to make our roads far more environmentally friendly through the use of recycled materials,” says Penrith Mayor Tricia Hitchen.
“Road users may not notice the subtle differences between PAK-PAVETM and other road surfaces under normal driving conditions apart from it being quieter, however in adverse conditions the new surface is reported to improve braking and wet weather performance.”
For more information, visit www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au
