Recycling Rocky Roads

Published on 29 May 2019

Roads in the Rockhampton Region will be increasingly made from recycled materials, thanks to the innovative work of Council’s Civil Operations Team.

Infrastructure Committee Chair, Councillor Tony Williams, said he was proud of the team who pulled this project together.

“We really do have some excellent staff here at Council, who are constantly working hard to improve the service we offer to our residents.

“When upgrades and replacements take place on roads around the region, the old materials like concrete and asphalt are pulled up.

“The state that the material is in at that point means it can’t be reused, so most councils send this to landfill.

“Our Civil Ops saw an opportunity and the team have transformed what used to be a storage area in to a busy working site that now recycles ‘dirty’ products into ‘clean’ products, which can then be used on future projects.

“This massively reduces our environmental impact as those materials are no longer going to landfill, but has a huge cost benefit too.

“Previously these materials were going to landfill at a cost of $200 a tonne. Now that our new facility is up and running, we can crush and recycle that material at just $7 a tonne.

“When we started we were only recycling around 90 tonnes a day, but now that’s up to an impressive 300 per hour. This means we will be able to use the material not just in roads and civil ops projects, but for all kinds of projects across Council too.”

“On top of that, the amount of new materials we need to purchase has obviously reduced as well, meaning we can invest all these savings back into projects to improve our roads.”