Oldham urged to use recycled plastic bottles and bags to build roads

Plastic bottles and bags are being recycled into an asphalt mixture to produce roads that are kinder to the environment and, manufacturers claim, longer lasting.

A process that creates plastic pellets from waste bottles and bags and melts them into asphalt makes for stronger roads and less waste.

A number of councils around the UK are testing the ‘plastic roads’.

The process involves making plastic pellets from bottles and bags that would otherwise be destined for landfill sites. The pellets are then melted into the asphalt mix to act as a binding agent plastic makes up roughly 0.5% of the mixture.

Cllr Dave Murphy Shadow Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services said I understand that Highway Officers from Oldham Council have previously looked at this idea but have concerns over the plastic leaching out in to the water course but I believe this idea has merit and I have asked that Officers revisit the scheme and have provided them with a contact at a company who specialise in the product so they can obtain more information.

This can only be a positive move that we are encouraging Oldham to use. There will be less maintenance so we will be saving money. The formula makes the performance of the road much greater and part of the bitumen in the mix, that is fossil fuel is replaced by single use plastic.

Our analogy is that traditional bitumen is a bit like a Pritt Stick – what we have is a superglue. It binds the material together to form a much stronger and longer lasting bind, so we have less flaking or anything coming off”.

Councillor Hazel Gloster member for Shaw ward, added “There would also be less landfill tax because we’re not sending plastic into landfill. Although, at the moment, the pellets are slightly more expensive than bitumen, bitumen depends on the price of oil so that wouldn’t necessarily always be the case. Also, it uses a lot less binder or using our analogy glue, so there’s a saving there. It’s really quite exciting. Instead of using bitumen, which is a product of the oil industry, it uses plastics which would normally go into landfill so it’s environmentally friendly as well as being a good, hard surface for the road.”

Cllr Murphy concluded by saying “the world is using more plastics than it can responsibly dispose of we have seen shocking images in the media of plastics in our oceans and it is only right that as a local authority we look at innovative ways to dispose of our waste plastics.”

TV Crew to film ‘COBRA’ a new drama on location in Shaw 11-12 -13 June

COPY OF LETTER GIVEN TO LOCAL RESIDENTS

Dear Residents

New Pictures are currently in the process of filming a new television Drama, ‘Cobra’ and as mentioned in our previous letter, we would like to do some filming in your local area.

Below are the dates that we would like to dress and film on, though this is subject to change.  We will let you know if and when that happens.

Cobra is a six-part drama set around the event of a large solar flare knocking out the power in most of England. 

The show focuses on the fictional government and their emergency COBRA committee, attempting to organise and restore normality. 

With the flare resulting in a massive loss of in infrastructural capabilities, public services have all but stopped, resulting in large rubbish build ups on streets.  Communities are needed to come together to try and solve the issues of none existent public services. 

To try and emulate this disarray in towns and cities, we will adding prop bags of rubbish and other items onto the streets where we are filming.  These will be removed as soon as we finish filming. 

We intend to be doing dressing in the area across Buckley Street, Gordon Street, Duckworth Street, Greaves Street and  Crossley Street with a large set up in the park area between Duckworth Street and Gordon Street from Tuesday 11thth June to Wednesday12th June.  And begin filming on Thursday 13th June 0800-2000.

As we are still in the early planning stages of these days filming, there is potential for things to change.  We will update you as and when this happens, and I will try to speak to as many of you as possible whom filming may affect.

Please feel free to contact me with the details on the header of this letter should you have any questions or concerns regarding our filming.

Thanks – James Goodwin, Unit Manager ‘Cobra’