Plastic used for Cumbria road resurfacing

Image source, Cumbria County Council

Image caption, Some of the bitumen in the standard asphalt mix is replaced by recycled plastic

Partially "plastic" roads are being introduced around Cumbria following a successful trial by the county council.

The authority was the first in England to incorporate a plastic-based material made from recycled waste into the standard asphalt used in resurfacing.

After a few smaller projects last year, it was used in the recent 拢200,000 resurfacing of the A7 in Carlisle.

The council said it was "very pleased" with the results and would be rolling it out in a number of other locations.

For the A7 works, using the recycled plastic material involved the equivalent of off-setting 500,000 plastic bottles and more than 800,000 one-use plastic carrier bags.

Stephen Hall, Cumbria County Council's assistant director for Highways, Transport and Fleet, said: "Our industry does have a significant environmental impact - we use a lot of oil-based products and aggregate that comes out of quarries.

"So any opportunity that we get to try and mitigate some of that has to be of benefit."