‘Rubber roads’ can save us billions

‘Rubber roads’ can save us billions | Daily Tribune

Environment advocate Green Queen Narda Camacho, mother of ex-Trade Secretary Lito Camacho, visited Malaysia in the 1990s. There she discovered from former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (1981-2003) that if you mix rubber with asphalt to make roads, it’s magic. The roads will need little or no repair. That is how rubber roads can save us billions.

Since Malaysia produces a lot of rubber, they formulated a technology where raw rubber did not have to be processed but could be mixed directly from the harvest of latex drips into cups with asphalt to make “rubber roads.”

“Cup lump is naturally coagulated rubber obtained directly from rubber trees without going through any manufacturing process. Bitumen is then added to the cup lumps and this, when mixed with asphalt, results in CMA. An estimated 4.2 tons of coagulated rubber are required for every kilometer of road.”

Rubber roads have “the ability to withstand heavier loads, have higher heat resistance, provide better grip, and are cheaper to maintain in the long run. The initial cost, however, is much higher at RM53.60 (Malaysian currency) per meter compared to RM29.90 using the conventional method.” (paultan.org, 13 October 2017)

Using a plain mathematical ratio, the increase in cost is a little less than double. But if you consider no repairs, say for the first five years, this translates to cheaper roads because of the dramatic reduction in maintenance cost, even possibly zero maintenance for up to 10 years.

Narda realized that the same technology could be used in the Philippines by recycling rubber tires and mixing them with asphalt. And since recycled Philippine rubber tires are much cheaper than harvested Malaysian rubber, the economics is even better.

Presently, recycled rubber is used in a variety of ways, for example, to make flower pots and other low-end garden materials. It is filled with cement to anchor underwater sea buoys on which grow barnacles and corals and eventually attract fish for harvest.

The excited Green Queen Narda came home and shared the good news with some Metro Manila mayors. To her surprise, before she could even explain the technology further, her ideas were immediately rejected. Not one mayor endorsed the pioneering idea that would save the government billions in road repairs. That’s because the mayors would lose their precious “personal income” from road repairs.

Power politics was given primacy over environmental advocacy. The Green Queen, formerly idolized by the mayors, retreated in tears into the darkness.

The situation is not hopeless. The idea can still be revived today. Option 1: We need a Green King, a rubber road czar, to twist the arms of the mayors into submission. The key is legislation. If we promulgate a law making rubber roads mandatory, the government, the recycling people, and the general public will benefit. For the general public, this would translate to fewer vehicle repairs. Can the people’s power overwhelm the power politicians?

The problem is the lawmakers are connected to the mayors and they can form a powerful team to derail the bill before it becomes a law. That’s how hard it is to jump the first hurdle. Evil triumphs over Good, if Good is not supported by good people.

The other option is a good-hearted dictator. Can you imagine Marcos Jr. taking up the cudgels for all his constituents and mandating rubber roads as his environmental legacy? Perhaps, the more feisty Senator Imee can use gentle persuasion on her younger brother? These are all “ifs.” Let’s see if we can find a hero to take up the gargantuan anti-politics task of instituting rubber roads.

As for the supply, there are millions of tons of rubber tires accumulating every day. The more vehicles, the more the traffic, the more recycled rubber, the better roads to save us all.

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