The Sunbury Road Upgrade is setting an example for sustainability across major transport infrastructure projects, by installing industry-leading, environmentally friendly recycled pipes.
As part of the upgrade, crews installed 550 pipes and 3.3km of recycled pipes to improve stormwater drainage on the northern side of the new Jacksons Creek bridge and along the Sunbury Road Upgrade Project.
These colourful, speckled pipes are 100 percent recycled high-density polyethylene, made up of a wide array of household plastic materials, including milk bottles, shampoo bottles and kitchen and laundry product packaging.
Up to 5000 milk bottles are recycled to produce one 630mm RPM pipe. That’s equivalent to more than 1.3km of waste milk bottles laid end to end.
More than 2.75 million recycled plastic bottles were used in addition to other recyclable materials to create the pipes along this project.
Approximately 80.5 tonnes of recycled plastic was used to build the pipes.
The high-quality pipes are manufactured locally in Kyabram by RPM.
The innovative piping will deliver benefits for both the environment and local community.
They are lighter than traditional concrete pipes, making them safer and quicker to install.
MRPV and its construction partners, supported by ecologiQ, are committed to identifying ways to use more recycled materials across all major road upgrades, in line with the Victorian Government’s Recycled First Policy.
The shift to recycled products is being driven by Victoria’s ecologiQ program, which is leveraging Victoria’s Big Build to boost the use of recycled and reused materials.
Recycled First is being implemented across future Victorian Big Build projects as well as Department of Transport and Planning projects from 2022.
The Sunbury Road Upgrade will be completed by 2025.
