An Australian university has found a way to turn waste into pavement, and the approach could help US road builders address a difficult disposal problem. In 2021, engineers at RMIT University in Melbourne mixed shredded single-use face masks with crushed concrete to build the base layers of a road. According to RMIT University's study, "Repurposing of COVID-19 single-use face masks for pavements base/subbase," published in Science of the Total Environment, one kilometer of a two-lane road built with this material could use about 3 million masks while keeping 93 tonnes of waste out of landfill. That finding matters because disposable masks piled up worldwide during the pandemic, with few clear disposal paths. I think this could help road builders and reduce waste.
Why millions of masks needed somewhere to go
