Permeable parking is an environmentally-friendly solution that’s been growing in popularity for years, now. Rather than being solid, though, the pavement has small, breathable openings in it that allow water to slide through it, moving through the gravel and back into the soil more naturally. These permeable parking areas help prevent flooding, and at the same time saves additional construction costs since gutters and drains are not necessary.
According to Recycling Product News, though, Trent University in Ontario is taking this product one step further; using recycled plastic to build longer-lasting, more environmentally-friendly places to park.
What’s Happening?
The university announced plans to expand their current parking spaces by 100 units. While doing, so they’ll be the first university to install this particular type of permeable paving option. The project will use approximately 35,000 pounds (or about 17 tons) of recycled plastic, detain over 64,000 gallons of stormwater. Also, it will save roughly 162 tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of planting just over 34,000 trees.
That is a huge environmental impact for such a relatively modest project, but it could leave a template for other institutions who want to follow in their footsteps in the coming years. For plastic to be recycled, there needs to be an end project that demands the material; otherwise, it just sits there doing nothing. By replacing traditional asphalt with recycled plastic in this way, it uses a material that desperately needs to be cleaned out of the environment, while also making a minimal impact on the ecosystem. It is, in most ways, a win-win proposal.
And it’s one that could be copied and used in a wide variety of places, easily scaling up the design and material needs.
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