A suburban road in Penrith has become the first in Australia to include recycled coffee cups in its construction.

Developed by asphalt production firm State Asphalts NSW in conjunction with circular economy solution provider Closed Loop Environmental Solutions, the PAK-PAVE™ asphalt is being trailed along a section of Jamison Road at South Penrith in Sydney’s west.

A second trial will soon follow at Swallow Drive in Erskine Park, also in Sydney’s west.

The asphalt is made of more than 50 percent recycle materials.

These include cups which have been recycled through the Simply Cups paper cup recycling program that is run by Closed Loop as well as other recycled materials including the equivalent of 1.2 million glass stubbies together with Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, Steel Furnace Slag.

Cups such as coffee cups, takeaway soft drinking cups and take away ice-cream and gelato cups are collected and shredded to create a CLESmix. This is then transformed into PAK-PAVE™ fiber which presents the cups in an acceptable form to be used in the roads.

The fiber is then combined with rock, sand and bitumen to create the roads.

In addition to a 24 percent reduction in carbon footprint, State Asphalts NSW and Closed Loop Environmental Solutions say the new roads will offer other advantages.

These include better pavement durability and crack resistance, improved wet-weather skid resistance, lower levels of noise from surface texture and cost advantages as fewer raw materials are required whilst the improved durability can enable thinner surfacing of the roads.

Put together, the two trials above will utilize over 135,000 recycled paper cups – 85 percent of the entire total that was recycled in the Penrith Local Government Area over 2022.

The latest development comes as Australia’s construction sector is moving toward a circular economy approach in order to reduce waste and environmental footprint.

All up, Australia’s construction and demolition industry generates about 27 million tonnes of waste (around 36 percent of overall waste) – of which around one-third is currently going into landfill (refer National Waste Report 2020).

Last week, the New South Wales Government released new design guidelines to help the construction sector to implement circular design strategies into new building and civil infrastructure projects.

Penrith Mayor, Tricia Hitchen, said Council is proud to be leading the way in a move that leads to a more sustainable circular economy and delivers a high-quality road surface for all road users.

“Council has a proven track record when it comes to re-using waste products in innovative ways and this is yet another way of reducing landfill by giving a waste product new life in an alternative use,” Hitchen said.

“With over 1,208 km 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 than first thought through the use of recycled materials.”

“The new surface offers improved braking and wet weather performance.”

For Closed Loop, the new asphalt represents a further advancement in its Simply Cups, which it says has saved more than 30 million paper cups such as coffee cups and take-away soft drink cups from landfill since beginning in 2017.

Whilst the cups contain high-quality fiber, they are challenging to recycle on account of their waterproof lining.

Through the program, however, the cups are recycled into new application. As well as the asphalt, this includes lightweight concrete products and construction boards.

There are currently more than 630 7-Eleven stores that have cup collection units as well as collection locations in numerous shopping centres, office buildings, schools and universities. Locations can be found on the Simply Cups website (simplycups.com.au/locations) or on the free RecycleMate app.

The project to develop the roads received grand funding from the Australian Government.

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