The pursuit of sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions that humans and nature can exist in harmony to support present and future generations.
SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABLE ASPHALT PRACTICES
Among those recycled and renewable materials, Stanley Roads uses:
- Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP)
- Recycled crushed glass
- Crumbed rubber
- Plastic enhanced bitumen
Apart from recycled materials, other sustainable practices used by Stanley Roads include:
- Warm-mix asphalt (WMA)
- Cold-mix products


BENEFITS OF SUSTAINABLE ASPHALT PRACTICES
Create a more circular economy
The majority of “end-of-life” materials in road construction projects end up in landfill. Generating a continual need for virgin products; this creates a high environmental burden. Keeping these traditional ‘end-of-life’ products in productive use through a process of reclaiming and recycling is in line with Australia’s vision for a Circular Economy as follows:

*% RAP used in accordance to contractors specifications
A typical two-lane bitumen road can require up to 25 000 tonnes of material per km (Newman 2012). Given that roads in Queensland require replacement every 10 to 15 years there are many millions of tonnes of used road surfaces available to be processed into new road surface.
Recent research by the Queensland Government has identified in 2017-18, 5.3 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste was generated, with 50.9 per cent of this waste recovered, leaving 2.4 million tonnes being dumped in Queensland landfills.
(See reference)
Furthermore, only 360,146 tonnes of asphalt from Queensland roads was recovered
(See reference)
Due to the volume of waste produced by the road construction industry, unfortunately uncontrolled and illegal dumping is a major issue.

Currently, the majority of Australia’s road construction activities use virgin materials. These materials are sourced from existing quarries at market prices and supply is dependent on availability. The use of reclaimed materials has the advantage of obtaining the required aggregates at a significant discount to the cost of virgin material without the environmental impacts caused from virgin material including reducing land destruction, protecting local ecosystems and maintain biodiversity levels.
0% RAP

15% RAP

96% RAP

The goal is to achieve 100% RAP in asphalt mixes. The increased use of RAP will, over time, almost eliminate the need for new quarries.
The Stats
In 2018, Queensland produced 40,721,966 tonnes of hard rock quarry material. Of this,
tonnes was used for virgin road base or subbase.
Currently, Australia typically only uses
of RAP in road maintenance and new construction.
In terms of carbon footprint, it appears that GHG emissions are reduced significantly when using recycled asphalt, as opposed to other materials.
of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be avoided by replacing 50 to 100 % of virgin asphalt with Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP)
“Recycling and Waste in Queensland 2018” showed
tonnes of waste being generated from C&D each year, representing an 20% growth from 2016/17.
Recent News
QLD Government Announcement: Funding for New Asphalt Plant
“This grant is also a vital step in the right direction to creating a truly circular economy and reducing emissions from road construction.”
Road and Bridge Construction – IBISworld report, August 2019
The Road and Bridge Construction industry's revenue has fluctuated significantly over the past five years, reflecting the start-up and completion of several la ...
QLD Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy
On 1 July 2019, the Queensland Government announced the new Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy, a strategic framework to transition towards a zero ...
Recycling Plant
Stanley Roads are leading the way in Australia with “Next Generation Asphalt Technologies” to improve roads, change industry behaviour and develop next generati ...
Asphalt Plant
Stanley Roads have erected the latest generation, low emission asphalt plant which is located in Tivoli which guarantees the highest level of flexibility in pro ...
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