After China announced the banning of nearly all plastic trash imports for recycling in 2018, this left California with the loss of markets and a surplus of unrecycled plastics in the state. Prior to this, California sent two-thirds of its recyclable materials to China. Senate Bill 580, by Sen. Ben Hueso, looks to mitigate the surplus by asking the Department of Transportation to conduct the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and lifecycle environmental benefits of utilizing recycled plastics in asphalt used for construction and repair of a state highway or road.
“As a leader on environmental justice issues, California is uniquely positioned to innovate the transportation industry by introducing new technology that could revolutionize the way we look at recycled plastic,” said Hueso. “This bill would simultaneously address two of our state’s most pervasive issues – reducing our plastic waste and fixing our roads.”
Unanimously approved by the California State Senate Committee on Transportation on April 13, the idea for this bill came from two clubs at Bonita Vista High School, the BVHS Progressive Club and the BVHS Green Team, both co-sponsors of SB 580.
Hueso said these students, when looking at a problem, instead saw opportunities.
“And now they have a bill in the State Legislature that could alleviate California’s burden of surplus plastic waste, while also creating jobs and improving the conditions of our roads. I know these students – and this bill – are going to make a big difference.”
BVHS senior Bryce Garrod, 17, founding president of the Progressive Club said they became involved after a student climate change walkout on Sept. 20, 2019. Hueso gave a speech regarding climate change, and at the end, he challenged the students to bring him environmental legislation ideas that he could present on the Senate floor. The two clubs got together and began research, finding three different ideas. A tax on each barrel of oil extracted from land in California, banning the plastic bottles at California public sites, such as state parks, buildings and airports, but the one that stood out to them was the use of plastic roads.
“I was searching articles online on interesting environmental things that people were doing to help the environment,” said Garrod. “In the whole concept of the plastic roads, there was company called MacRebur based in the Scotland. We then found out that it was in San Diego and had done work in San Diego, which included a parking lot at UCSD they made with the plastic road process.”
Garrod said it was amazing that they found something so close to home that aligned with their proposal. He said after meeting the people at MacRebur Southern California, they had been attempting to get local and state leaders to listen to them about their plastic roads. At a presentation with Hueso on Dec. 12, 2019, the senator chose plastic roads for the senate bill.
“Throughout 2020, Senate Bill 1238 made it through many committees, but in the end, that bill died because during the COVID-19 pandemic, only necessary bills in relation to the pandemic were getting through,” said Garrod. “It was not deemed necessary or immediate at that time, which is understandable. There were many other things that needed to be done. This year it was reintroduced by Sen. Hueso, now SB-580. It passed the transportation committee most recently and that is where we are today.”
Garrod said when he gave his two minute virtual speech to the senators in support of the bill, he was a little nervous, but more with pride.
“I calmly gave my speech, and it was an exhilarating moment. It was also interesting because the Legislature, all the people there are always talking amongst themselves,” he said. “But with me in there, it made me feel like I had power to talk directly to them. It was amazing. Usually, you say you want this type of policy, you want to change the world, but what is stopping many people is that they cannot talk directly to them. I felt grateful to speak directly to them and what I thought about this amazing bill.”
MacRebur CFO/COO Rebeca Sparks said at the same time the students were looking at MacRebur in Scotland, its parent company, Sparks Company, was looking at acquiring a manufacturing license agreement with MacRebur to start manufacturing in Southern California. MacRebur is also a co-sponsor of SB-580.
“It was all very coincidental. SB-1238 passed unopposed last year, but one assembly member refused to have the bill heard in the Assembly, said to be COVID related,” she said. “This year, SB-580 seems to be going very well. Bryce was one of the testimony witnesses, and I was the other testimony witness. We have hopeful thoughts for this year, and it seems that the current administration is positive towards climate change and all of these great things that we can do to offset the waste plastic footprint.”
MacRebur CEO/President Chris Sparks said with plastic asphalt, they divert waste plastic. Specifically plastic designation as waste, unable or difficult to be recycled.
“Basically, we are taking waste plastics and using them to replace part of the oil in our roads and parking lots,” he said. “We are diverting waste plastics, getting them out of our landfills, out of our environments, and we are reducing the amount of virgin fossil fuels these asphalt manufacturers are having to utilize to make their products. And we are creating stronger and longer lasting roads.”
Chris Sparks said the technology has been around for about six years and MacRebur has been manufacturing in Southern California for more than a year now.
“The first plastic road went down here in San Diego in September 2018,” he said. “We are in a manufacturing industry that leans heavily on technology in terms of predictive testing to simulate aging, different traffic, wear and tear, and temperature. So, we can very accurately test today’s asphalt, whether it be conventional or plastic asphalt.”
Rebeca Sparks said that every ton of plastic asphalt diverts the waste equivalent of about 3,000 plastic straws. It has a significant carbon dioxide offset.
“We have two different types of products depending on what type of asphalt application that you are doing,” she said. “The beef here of the products diverts 22.65 pounds of CO2 for every ton of asphalt. Every ton of asphalt offset four percent of the average American’s yearly plastic waste footprint.”
At a recent job at Cardiff Elementary School, with about 500 tons of asphalt, Rebeca Sparks said they diverted the equivalent of around three million plastic straws.
“But the coolest part of the project was they were able to offset more than every single teacher on campus, more than their yearly plastic waste footprint. And there is no change to the installation process,” she said. “We have made a commitment to our community to never exceed the cost of the oil that we are replacing. There are no additional steps in laying plastic asphalt, it is very plug and play.”
Senior Madison Baines, 18, Green Team president said her team began working on it in her junior year.
“It was exciting because we never worked with the Progressive Club,” she said. “It was really nice to work together with them for something we were both so passionate about. We were able to have meetings together, get to know each other and bond over this issue we wanted to combat and solve.”
Baines said the Green Team is the school’s eco club that works to spread sustainability tips and how students can be more environmentally friendly and work on helping the earth. She said the club led two student walkouts for climate change.
“I think that this bill will make a big difference,” she said. “Especially with how important it is to recycle and its environmental impact in the long run. It will create a big impact for our world and the future generations.”
Michael Garrod, parent advisor for BVHS Progressive Club and the Green Team said after the students found MacRebur on the internet and believed it was a great idea to bring to the U.S., that it was a shock to find that the company was in Vista, only 25 miles away.
“When we met them, they said they could not believe that a group of kids got the senator to listen to them after all of their work to get somebody to do anything about it. It took these kids to get this process moving,” said Michael Garrod. “They were pretty impressed with these kids who had gotten this bill moving.”
Michael Garrod said at the transportation committee hearing this year, the yes vote was unanimous, and many senators were impressed.
“Bryce made a two minute speech to the committee that students are involved, and this does not happen very often,” he said. “It is usually lobbyists and other people. They were proud and happy that 17 year old kids were getting involved.”
Michael Garrod said Bryce started the Progressive Club as a sophomore because he wanted to make a difference. He said that the Green Team also wanted to make a difference.
“These kids worked synergically together on many things on campus,” he said. “But for me to see a bill, and to bring kids to the forefront, you see that they actually care. They care about the environment because they are the ones going to be living in it. They were adamant. They were charged.”
Michael Garrod said when he and Bryce received the first draft of the bill, there were almost tears in his eyes.
“This senator actually took these kids seriously and did something,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this before in my life and my many years in politics. I tip my hat to the kids, and I tip my hat to Sen. Hueso for actually listening and caring about kids who cannot even vote.”
“It’s really rewarding to know that a small pebble that we tossed into the pond at a meeting with Sen. Hueso over two years ago has morphed into a bill that could change the world of plastic recycling,” said Bryce Garrod. “As they say, ‘as goes California, so goes the rest of the country’ It would be very humbling if this process works and a group of high school kids could say ‘Hey, we made a difference in our world.’”
