They decided to use plastic waste for asphalting the roads

The Kingdom of Bhutan has come up with a new means of paving its roads - plastic waste.

As part of an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels and deal with the piles of plastic waste, Bhutanese authorities plan to combine plastic waste with asphalt to pave roads.

"It is about the private-public project "Green Roads", which aims to reduce the import of bitumen by 40 percent and reduce the amount of plastic waste in the country," said entrepreneur Rikesh Gurung, who is behind the private part of the project.

Although only 10 to 15 percent of the asphalt mixture will be made of plastic, it is expected that the project will consume all the plastic waste in that Asian country with 780.000 inhabitants, reports Reuters.

"We will use plastic waste to build environmentally friendly and sustainable roads in the country," said Gurung, who in October completed a pilot project to build a 150-meter-long "plastic" road in the capital, Thimbu.

"Recycling plastic, not burning it, is the right approach to the environment," Gurung said.

The project started to be implemented in cooperation with the first Bhutanese recycling company, construction companies and local authorities.

Supporters of the project claim that the use of plastic will reduce the cost of road construction and solve the problem of plastic waste.

"And while the rest of the world is suffocating in plastic waste, it looks like Bhutan will soon face a shortage of plastic waste," said academic Pashang Tshering.

Gurung predicts that plastic roads will not require repairs for at least five years, while traditional roads in Bhutan often need to be leveled once a year due to the mountainous configuration of the terrain and winter weather conditions.

The Government of Bhutan invests about $4,2 million every year to patch potholes on Bhutan's roads.

Reuters states that there are also cautions regarding the construction of roads "made of plastic".

Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering R. Vasudevan believes that it remains to be seen whether the plastic roads will withstand Bhutan's high altitudes, rain and cold.