Cumbria County Council finished a £200,000 resurfacing of Kingstown Road and Scotland Road in September 2017, replacing a share of the bitumen binder with pellets made from 500,000 discarded plastic bottles. The move, carried out by MacRebur, marked the first time a UK road incorporated recycled plastic into its asphalt mix.
The project aimed to cut the carbon footprint of traditional asphalt, which relies on energy‑intensive bitumen derived from crude oil. Keith Little, a county councillor, said the plastic‑filled mix “provides a more sustainable solution for road resurfacing.” Assistant Highway Director Stephen Hall added that the new material could extend a road’s life cycle and lower maintenance costs.
Cumbria’s experiment caught the eye of the Department for Transport, which, through its ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs Programme, allocated the county £1.6 million of a £22.9 million national fund. It became one of only eight local authorities selected, and the sole council in the North of England to receive this support.
Shell partnered with MacRebur, supplying a chemically modified waste‑plastic bitumen LTR binder that allows asphalt to be laid at lower temperatures, reducing energy use during production. The collaboration made the county the first in the world to trial MacRebur’s product and the first in Europe to test Shell’s binder on public roads.
A five‑year monitoring programme is underway, with data collected on durability, skid resistance and environmental impact. Cumbria plans to roll the technology out to additional county roads, while sharing lessons learned with other councils through ADEPT’s live‑lab network.