{"id":599153,"date":"2026-05-23T03:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599153\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T03:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:36:08","slug":"scientists-are-turning-ocean-trash-into-roads-and-its-actually-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599153\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Are Turning Ocean Trash Into Roads \u2013 and It\u2019s Actually Working"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Construction<\/a>Researchers in Hawaii are exploring an innovative way to turn discarded fishing nets and household plastic waste into asphalt for roads, potentially addressing the islands\u2019 growing landfill and marine debris challenges. Credit: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Hawaii researchers are testing whether plastic waste and abandoned fishing nets can be safely reused in asphalt roads.<\/p>\n

Hawaii is struggling with plastic waste. Recycling is difficult and expensive for the island state, especially when the waste includes marine debris that remains in the surrounding ocean waters. Researchers in Hawaii are testing a way to turn discarded fishing nets and household plastic trash into asphalt roads. Early trials suggest these materials could give some of the islands\u2019 waste a practical local use at the end of its life.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Axworthy, a researcher at the Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR) at Hawai\u02bbi Pacific University, presented the team\u2019s results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work investigates whether it\u2019s responsible to use recycled plastics in Hawaii\u2019s roads,\u201d shares Axworthy. \u201cBy reusing plastic waste that is already in Hawaii, we can reduce the environmental and economic impacts of transporting waste plastics from the islands, incinerating it or dumping it in Hawaii\u2019s overflowing landfills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Road asphalt offers a local outlet<\/p>\n

Since 2020, most roads in Hawaii have been paved with polymer-modified asphalt (PMA) to make pavement stronger and longer-lasting. Compared with regular asphalt, PMA is more flexible and better able to resist cracking, rutting, and water damage.<\/p>\n

Those qualities are especially useful in Hawaii\u2019s tropical climate. PMA is produced by melting styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS; a type of copolymer) pellets into a sticky asphalt binder made from petroleum. The binder is then mixed with hot aggregates (rocks and sand) inside a rotating drum so it fully coats the material.<\/p>\n

The question was whether waste plastic could replace or supplement some of that material in road pavement as a more useful disposal route. The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) wanted to know how asphalt made with recycled plastics would perform, and whether it might release microplastics or related chemicals into the environment. To investigate, HDOT contacted environmental chemist Jennifer Lynch, director of CMDR and lead of the research team.<\/p>\n

Fishing nets became test material<\/p>\n

HDOT made two requests of Lynch\u2019s team. First, the department needed derelict fishing nets collected from Hawaii\u2019s marine environment to use in recycled plastic modified asphalt. \u201cForeign plastic derelict fishing gear is the largest contributor of Hawaii\u2019s marine debris problem,\u201d shares Lynch. \u201cTo date, CMDR\u2019s Bounty Project, which pays a financial reward to licensed commercial fishers for marine debris removal, has removed 84 tons of large, derelict fishing gear from the Pacific Ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/a>Researchers collect road dust samples from a section of road paved with recycled plastic-reinforced asphalt. Pictured left to right: Rachel Nakamoto, Simon Williams, Cara Megill and Cate Wardinski. Credit: Marquesa Calderon<\/p>\n

Second, HDOT asked the researchers to test whether pavement made with plastic waste shed more microplastics than standard pavement modified with SBS. \u201cCMDR\u2019s laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art chemical instrumentation for quantifying and characterizing microplastics in environmental samples,\u201d explains Lynch. \u201cThis capability is incredibly unique and impactful, especially when coupled to our marine debris-removal project and our mission to recycle the debris into long-term, locally necessary infrastructure products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Road dust tested the risk<\/p>\n

After a company based in the United States converted the waste into materials suitable for asphalt, HDOT moved the experimental mixes onto real streets. A local paving company installed sections of a residential road on Oahu using asphalt that contained standard SBS, repurposed polyethylene from Honolulu recycling bins, and polyethylene from fishing nets. After roughly 11 months of normal traffic, Lynch\u2019s team collected road dust from each pavement section to look for microplastic shedding that could affect nearby soil.<\/p>\n

The researchers used a process that separates polymers from other road dust materials, including microplastics, larger plastic fragments, and tire rubber. With pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS), they traced the polymers back to their sources: styrene and butadiene from standard PMA, polyethylene from pavement made with plastic waste and fishing nets, and isoprene and butadiene rubber from tires.<\/p>\n

Early results showed that pavement made with recycled polyethylene did not shed more polymers than the control pavement made with SBS. Lynch\u2019s team found the same pattern in mechanical performance tests using pavement samples and in simulated stormwater collected from the experimental road sections.<\/p>\n

Microplastic-sized particles were found, but very few were identified as polyethylene, regardless of which pavement type was tested. The likely reason is that the polymers are melted into the asphalt binder, so fragments that break away are not pure plastic. They contain a mixture of rock, binder, and melted polymer chains.<\/p>\n

The CMDR team is also comparing polymer shedding from pavement with polymer shedding from tires found in road dust. \u201cIn our initial Py-GC-MS data,\u201d continues Lynch, \u201cwe saw tire wear swamps the signal of polyethylene by orders of magnitude, like gigantic peaks! We had to search the weeds of the chromatogram to find signs of polyethylene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recycling remains an open test<\/p>\n

More work is still needed to determine how durable the pavement will be over time. Even so, the researchers hope that turning used plastics into pavement could eventually help Hawaii reduce landfill pressure and marine debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people think plastic recycling is a hoax \u2014 that it doesn\u2019t work; it\u2019s too challenging,\u201d Lynch shares. \u201cBut this work demonstrates that recycling can work when society prioritizes sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meeting: ACS Spring 2026<\/p>\n

The research was funded by the Hawaii Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n

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