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Plastic roads are a thing

Just when you think we can't do any more with plastic, someone comes up with plastic roads. Theoretically, they'll be cheaper to construct, last two to three times longer than they do today and are recyclable.
This year about 380 tons of plastic will be produced worldwide, of which 50% will be used only once. One million plastic bags (sometimes referred to as South Africa's national flower) are used every minute. There is so much of the stuff around and you can't get rid of it.
The plastic-waste problem has grabbed global attention. In the European Union, laws are being agreed to which will ban single-use plastic products such as cotton buds and straws by 2021, and producers will have to help cover waste-management costs.
And some eight million tons of the stuff ends up in the world’s oceans, polluting the waters and destroying sealife.
But deliverance is at hand!
A 30m bicycle track was opened in the Netherlands in September 2018 that was made from 70% recycled plastic and the rest from polypropylene. The product is creatively named PlasticRoad.
This is how The Economist described it in its 15 September 2018 issue:
"PlasticRoad is prefabricated in a factory as modular sections. The sections are then transported to the site and laid end-to-end on a suitable foundation, such as sand. Because these sections are hollow, internal channels can be incorporated into them for drainage, along with conduits for services such as gas and electricity."
There is hope that the sections will eventually be made entirely from recycled plastic and be used in actual roads, which it is foreseen could contain sensors to monitor traffic, and later circuits to assist autonomous vehicles and recharging electric cars wirelessly.
And, wrote The Economist, the roads should last considerably longer than conventional ones, cost less to be built and can themselves be recycled.
To prove that this is not an impossible dream, recycled plastic, albeit in a different form, is also being used in road building Britain and Australia.