A major chemical company is building roads made of recycled plastic. They've already stopped 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills.

Plastic gets a bad rap for clogging up landfills, polluting our oceans, and leaking toxic chemicals, but there may be ways to mitigate its damage. Beginning in 2017, one of the world's largest plastic producers, Dow Chemical, began building roads with recycled plastic as a way to reduce waste. Their combined efforts have saved 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills. After piloting programs outside the US, Dow has finally brought the project closer to home: In February, the company constructed two private roads at its facility in Freeport, Texas — about an hour outside of Houston — using 1,700 pounds of recycled plastic, or the equivalent weight of 120,000 plastic grocery bags. While the roads still contain asphalt, they offer a practical use for a product that might otherwise turn into litter. (Dow wouldn't disclose the ratio of asphalt to plastic in its formula.)...MORE