RECYLCING and pothole woes are being addressed by a man on a mission to reduce the amount of plastic wasted in Wiltshire.

Brian Mathew wants to see the roads in the county fixed with a revolutionary road surface that uses plastic pellets to fill in potholes.

It is claimed that the asphalt mixture, created by removing some bitumen and replacing it with plastic pellets or flakes, is stronger than other surfacing materials and uses tons of non-recyclable plastic for a useful purpose.

Dr Mathew, Wiltshire councillor for Box and Colerne said: “With the disposal of waste plastics becoming increasingly important to the residents of Wiltshire and the UK in general, as previous destinations in the Far East, including China, stop taking our plastic waste, there is need for us here in Wiltshire to do our bit to recycle plastic waste at home.

“Wiltshire drivers are also complaining of the state of our roads after the last winter, with all too often temporary fixes popping back out of the road, within weeks of being patched.”

The technology is already up and running in other parts of the country including Penrith, Dumfries and Galloway, Carlisle, and Cumbria.

Toby McCartney, chief executive of MacRebur, a company that uses plastic for better purposes, was inspired after seeing people in India using plastic to fill in pot holes. He said: “I got together with a couple of mates and we thought how can we take old rubbish and stick it in our roads to make our roads stronger and longer lasting.

"The more we experimented the more we found we can take waste plastic from our landfills, from our oceans, the waste that you and I throw away today, we can take them and pelletise them, we can replace part of the bitumen in the road mix to create a stronger longer lasting road to reduce pot hole problem.”

The technology is thought to have the opportunity to prevent 60,000 tons of plastic from ending up in landfills each year.

Cllr Mathew has put forward a motion to discuss the technology at the next Wiltshire council full meeting on May 22.

He added: “Wiltshire Council prides itself on being at the forefront of innovation and problem solving, so here it can be a leader in both solving its waste plastics problem, and building stronger, cheaper to maintain roads.

"A ‘win win’ is on offer.”