Malaysian roads to be paved with recycled plastics

Setia Bintang’s MacRebur has been featured on Focus Malaysia for its contribution to sustainable development of Malaysian Roads.

Setia Bintang Engineering Sdn Bhd plans to pave roads in Malaysia using plastic waste, reducing pollution and saving thousands of tonnes of plastics from landfills. The company is using Plastic Binder Extender (PBE) technology developed by Scottish company MacRebur, which aims to solve the global plastic waste issue.

Setia Bintang is the exclusive distributor for MacRebur in Malaysia and other territories like Thailand and Indonesia. One tonne of PBE MacRebur asphalt uses 80,000 plastic bottles or 740,541 single-use plastic bags.

According to Setia Bintang executive director Izran Al-Amin, the technology extends the life cycle of asphalt beyond conventional road pavement, reducing pothole incidence and ensuring the same mixing, laying, rolling, and compacting process.

In October 2020, Setia Bintang laid a pilot stretch of 117 metres stretch with PBE MacRebur using 810kg of plastic waste, located at the KM 21 layby on the Kuala Lumpur – Karak Highway in the Gombak area.