In Bhutan, the road to green development is paved with plastic

Bhutan has come up with a new way to pave its roads: waste plastic. As part of efforts to curb the use of fossil fuels and deal with growing amounts of plastic waste, the country plans to mix used plastic bottles and other waste plastic with bitumen to blacktop its roads.

The Green Road public-private project is expected to reduce the amount of bitumen imported from India by 40 percent, and cut the amount of plastic waste going into landfills by 30-40 percent, said plastic road entrepreneur Rikesh Gurung.

Although only 10 to 15 percent of the mix used to pave roads is plastic, the project is expected to consume all the plastic waste in the country of over 780,000 people, Gurung said.

"We will use the plastic waste to build eco-friendly and durable roads in the country," said the 30-year-old, who in October built an initial 150-metre length of pilot road in the capital, Thimphu. "Recycling plastic waste and not burning (it) is the correct approach to protect the environment," he said.