Near Valencia, Spain, a new kind of highway is being built. The coating is similar to those we know but the interior has a mystery ingredient: paper ashes are incorporated under the road, instead of cement. Yes Yes.

According to Euronews , who visited the site, nothing is showing from the outside but Acciona , the public works company that is building the highway to La Font de la Figuera, is experimenting here with a process that could seriously change the carbon impact. of our roads: "  This paper ash (…) meets all the technical requirements of cement, but it is also more respectful of the environment  ", describes Juan Jose Cepria Pamplona d'Acciona. And for good reason, it avoids using cement, which is very polluting, and makes it possible to recycle waste paper.

Cement requires baking limestone and clay at very high temperatures, an energy-intensive combustion and often carried out using fossil fuels. On the other hand, the stationery sector has an annual production of some 130 million tonnes, of which 55% of waste in Europe is today irremediably incinerated. Gloups. This is where Acciona steps forward to recover the burnt cardboard, paper and pulp that nobody does anything about.

“We have calculated that we can save 65 to 75% of the CO2 emissions associated with [building a road]. If this process, tested at La Font de la Figuera within the framework of the European project of waste recycling PaperWaste , were adopted for all their sites, the company estimates to be able to "  save 18,000 tons of cement per year  ". The icing on the cake, recovering waste from the paper industry offers a profit path for the entire sector, including agroforestry. And whatever is good for the forests is good for the planet, right?