The plastics you’ve recycled may have ended up in at a state park in Pennsylvania. Or at a whiskey distillery in Kentucky. Or even in Hawaii. That’s all thanks to an emerging practice of transforming waste plastics into tiny beads used to strengthen materials like asphalt and concrete. The products are already reinforcing roads and parking lots throughout Iowa. You may have driven over them yourself without even knowing.
Gary Beeman, an Iowa State University engineering graduate, is the chief executive officer of New Village Initiative — what he calls the “mothership” that several companies fall under. One of those companies is the NVI Advanced Materials Group, which is focused on reducing waste while improving infrastructure.
About 10 years ago, the group started researching cheaper alternatives to traditional construction materials. They zeroed in on the ever-growing mountains of discarded plastics. The company sources plastics from all over the country, including Iowa’s waste streams. They’re sent to two manufacturing plants: one in Tipton and one in North Carolina. There, they undergo a transformation.