Australia Trials Recycled Rubber Curbs

Victoria’s Big Build, an initiative of the Victoria state government, has partnered with the University of Melbourne Faculty of Engineering and Porous Lane, a company that recycles tires, to develop and trial concrete curb replacement.  The project  received a Sustainability Victoria grant

Porous Lane makes and installs engineered permeable pavement systems for different applications using a pavement mix developed by researchers at the University of Melbourne using fifty percent recycled tire rubber and stone aggregate.

The curb forms a barrier between the road pavement and the nature strip, designed to direct rain into stormwater drains and protect the edge of the road from erosion.

One section of the curb in the new East Pakenham Station car park has been made from Porous Lane’s permeable pavement mixture of granulated scrap tires and crushed rock, which is bound together using an epoxy binder – with zero cement required.

The curb will be monitored over coming years to review its quality and strength, the ability of the curb to filter debris out of rainwater before it reaches the drain, adequate rainwater drainage from the car park, and whether plants, trees and shrubs planted in the area are thriving.

If this trial is successful, it could be rolled out on future projects, potentially paving the way for concrete substitution on more major projects, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and moving Victoria closer to a net zero future.

The project is supported by the Circular Economy Markets Fund, delivered by Sustainability Victoria under the Victorian Government’s circular economy policy, Recycling Victoria: a new economy.

© Scrap Tire News, February 2024