Shanghai university campus features road made with recycled milk bottles

A collaborative project between Dow and the Chinese dairy brand Shiny Meadow has resulted in the creation of the ‘Milk Bottle Road’ at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. The initiative utilized more than 6,000 used milk bottles and other plastic waste to create a specialized pavement.

While described as a plastic road, the material is actually a polymer-modified asphalt. The recycled plastic waste was crushed and processed to be incorporated into the asphalt mixture rather than replacing conventional bitumen entirely. This technology, utilizing Dow’s ELVALOY RET, aims to improve the properties of the pavement.

The project addresses a specific challenge in the circular economy: milk bottles containing residue were difficult and unprofitable for traditional recyclers to process. By converting this low-value waste into road infrastructure, the partners found a functional use for materials that were technically recyclable but economically unattractive to the standard recycling market.