Watch It Wednesday #47

Roads have helped enable travel and trade for thousands of years and remain crucial today. Despite the importance of roads, the way in which we build them has not drastically changed for decades and results in significant CO2 emissions. These emissions can primarily be attributed to the heavy use of cement and asphalt as binders in roads.

However, there are emerging options to reduce the emissions associated with road building by replacing the incumbent binders with materials such as recycled plastics, bio-based binders, and in some instances Sulphur.

New ways of thinking about the infrastructure we rely on, and the materials used to create it is critical to reducing emissions. Further, we need to start shifting how we view transportation. For instance, moving away from personal vehicles towards electric trains, carpooling, and biking.