Partnership creates first road in China made with recycled plastic
Shanghai, China – April 22, 2021 – This Earth Day, Dow (NYSE: DOW) and Shiny Meadow, the premium dairy brand in China, announced their partnership to divert plastic waste from the environment.
In China’s first ever “plastic road” project by Dow and Shiny Meadow, used milk bottles were utilized to construct a road made with recycled plastic, giving hard-to-recycle plastic a second life. This collaboration is aligned with Dow’s sustainability commitment to stop the waste by enabling 1 million tons of plastic to be collected, reused, or recycled through its direct actions and partnerships by 2030.
The “Milk Bottle Road” was unveiled earlier today at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) Xuhui Campus. Enabled by Dow’s ELVALOY™ RET asphalt modification technology, more than 6,000 used milk bottles and other plastic wastes were used to pave the polymer-modified asphalt (PMA) road. Roads made with PMA demonstrate excellent performance and durability as compared to conventional neat asphalt.
Although milk bottles are easily recycled, recyclers are often reluctant to take in such waste due to the high rate of contamination caused by leftover milk residue. To help dairy brands like Shiny Meadow give plastic milk bottles a new purpose, Dow presented an innovative solution with its materials science and technology expertise, in which such hard-to-recycle plastic is collected and used to produce PMA postconsumer recycled plastic for roads and other pavement. By doing so, plastic waste is kept out of the environment, and the reduction in the use of bitumen as well as the potential service life extension of the roads will in turn reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.
“Hard-to-recycle plastic are often discarded in landfills and waterways without consideration for its value in other applications. The importance of plastics must be an impetus for brand owners, recyclers and other value chain partners to prevent it from being lost as waste,” said Bambang Candra, Asia Pacific commercial vice president, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “Using our materials science expertise, we help bring a new purpose to waste bottles. Our work with Shiny Meadow to create roads using their recycled plastic milk bottles has proven to be a success, and we hope to empower other brand owners to reduce plastic waste.”
“We are pleased to have found a meaningful use for our empty bottles. At Shiny Meadow, we uphold the vision of a more sustainable earth, and this includes ensuring that the plastic products we use have a circular journey instead of the traditional take-make-use path. While we are already using recyclable packaging materials in our production, there remains a gap in addressing the bottles’ end-of-life as low-quality plastic products are unvalued by recycling companies. In promoting recycled plastic content for roads, Dow has provided us with a solution that will go a long way,” said Lin Rong, brand director of Shiny Meadow.
“The University is delighted to see the construction of the “Milk Bottle Road” come to fruition today. As a tertiary institution focused on science and innovation, this collaboration gives us an actualized example of how we can tackle plastic waste in unique ways. We hope that this inspires our students to explore more unconventional solutions in the area of sustainability, and to bring their creative applications to an even greater scale within our community,” said Prof. Li Tao, vice president of East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST).
Dow’s collaboration with Shiny Meadow is among one of the many that reflect its commitment to stop plastic waste through various partnerships in Asia Pacific. Dow began improving roads with recycled plastic in Depok City, Indonesia in 2017 to help the Indonesian government reach its goal of reducing plastic waste in the ocean by 70 percent by 2025. Following that trial project’s success, Dow turned its attention to India, where it worked with KK Plastic Waste Management, Ltd., Rudra Environmental Solutions and two local governments to implement roads improved by plastic in the cities of Pune and Bangalore. Most recently, Dow began a collaboration with Siam Cement Group in Thailand to begin improving asphalt roads with plastic.
Learn more about the Milk Bottle Road project here.
About Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics
Packaging and Specialty Plastics (P&SP), a business unit of Dow (NYSE: DOW), combines core strengths of R&D, worldwide reach, broad product lines and industry expertise to deliver high performing technologies for end use markets in food packaging, personal hygiene, infrastructure, consumer goods and transportation. P&SP is one of the world’s largest producers of polyethylene resins, functional polymers, and adhesives, and enabled by Pack Studios, is a leading innovator and collaborator across the value chain on sustainable application development and circular economy life-cycle design for plastics. www.dowpackaging.com
About Dow
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company’s ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company, with a purpose to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. Dow’s portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer care. Dow operates 106 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $39 billion in 2020. References to Dow or the Company mean Dow Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.dow.com or follow @DowNewsroom on Twitter.
About Shiny Meadow
Established with a mission to provide highest standard freshness and nutrition, Shiny Meadow is a high-end fresh milk brand in China and offers consumer with premium quality milk, which is higher than European standards. Shiny Meadow has redefined the category of fresh milk, creating a new level of fresh milk for millions of consumers and families.
For further information, please contact:
Jolynn Yeo
+65 6830 4608
J.Yeo@dow.com
Maria Socorro Tan
+65 6551 5439
MTan@Golin.com