Road Construction: Using Recycled Plastic Waste and Wireless Charging Solutions for Electric Vehicles

This report discusses the use of recycled plastic waste for road construction and embedding wireless charging solutions for electric vehicles. It evaluates the implementation of these products and the future of the company in the plastic road construction industry.

Running Head: ROAD CONSTRUCTION 0
Strategic Management & CPD
Student Details
11/28/2018

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Executive Summary
The disposal of plastic waste has become a major environmental threat. Since plastic wastes
are non - biodegradable and toxic in nature, they have created several environmental
challenges. In this report, it will be discussed about the methods and technology used for
recycling plastic waste and using that recycled plastic waste for the road construction. Along
with plastic road concept, embedding wireless charging solution between the hallow space in
plastic road is also used by the new company XYZ. XYZ Company will use Inductive Power
Transfer technology for charging the electric vehicle which pass over the plastic roads. This
technology includes the installation of copper plates under the plastic road surface and the
same kind of copper plates are installed under the vehicles. This will create magnetic field
when the vehicle pass over the road and hence charge the electric vehicle. This report will
also discuss the methods of implementing these products of the XYZ and future of the
company in the plastic road construction industry.

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Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
About Wavin..........................................................................................................................3
Industry Growth.........................................................................................................................4
Electric Vehicle Trends..........................................................................................................4
Emission.................................................................................................................................5
XYZ to Help Trends and Emissions......................................................................................5
Company Exploitation...............................................................................................................6
Implementation of products...................................................................................................6
Opportunities for XYZ...........................................................................................................8
XYZ VS Wavin..........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Disposal of plastic waste has become a major threat to the environment. As plastic waste is
non-biodegradable element and toxic in nature, it has created several challenges for the
environment (Gebrekidan & Berhe, 2012). Innovations and researchers have developed
certain ways of managing plastic waste. They have come up with the idea of using this plastic
waste in to the construction of roads. Roads constructed using plastic wastes are more
efficient than the conventional methods such as these have greater load carrying capacity,
reduce release of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, better road strength, and many more (Akadiri
et al., 2012).
Since last decade, there has been huge increment in the purchasing of electric vehicles. This
is because electric vehicles have several advantages over gasoline powered vehicles like
silent ride, immediate torque, higher efficiency, premium performance, and less maintenance
cost (EVgo, 2018).
In this paper, the ways for charging electric vehicles within sustainable road construction
methods will be evaluated. I want to establish a road construction company, XYZ that mainly
works on the concept of using plastic waste materials for the construction of roads. XYZ will
also focus on providing wireless charging solutions for the electric vehicles when they are
moving on the road. This concept includes the installation of magnetic coils under the road
surface e during the construction of road.
About Wavin
Wavin was established in 1955 by Johan Kelller. It is a Dutch company that manufactures
plastic pipes for the drainage and water supply purposes. It is headquartered in Zwolle,
Netherlands and operates around more than 25 European countries. Wavin is going to

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develop the very first plastic road of the world. Plastic road concept was introduced by KWS
(subsidiary of VolkerWessels). KWS comes in partnership with Wavin and Total in 2016 for
the further development of plastic roads. This road will be constructed in Zwolle, Netherlands
and will be made up of using the 100 per cent recycled plastic waste. Road will be hollow
prefabricated with the elements that allow drainage of water and installation of cables and
pipes (Wavin, 2018).
Industry Growth
Electric Vehicle Trends
Industrial revolution has increased the production of vehicles which resulted in the mass
production of transportation energy. This has increased the consumption of fossil fuels as this
is the dominant source of energy. Consumption of fossil fuels resulted in the increase of
carbon emissions. 16 per cent of the global emission is from the transportation sector and
where 95 per cent is from fossil fuels (ICCT, 2012). This leads to global warming and has
created the risk of depletion of fuel by the end of this century.
Revolution of electric vehicle has come up with solution for this problem. Electric vehicles
are more efficient and hence results in the less greenhouse gas and other emissions as
compared to the cars powered by internal combustion engines. In 2016, around 1.3 million
electric vehicles were sold globally (Palinski, 2107). However, electric vehicle trend is slow
but to increase the automotive and mobility trends, OEMs has announced the launch of 100
new models of electric vehicles by 2024 (Chatelain et al., 2018). In the energy industry,
electric vehicles are gaining momentum and as per the industry members, in coming few
year’s electric vehicles will populate our roads which emit almost zero or very low carbon.

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Emission
One of the major concern regarding electric vehicles is the source of energy that people use to
charge their vehicles (Un-Noor et al., 2017). Two kinds of emissions are associated with
electric vehicles; these are tailpipe and well-to-wheel emissions. Electric vehicles emit no
tailpipe when runs on electricity. Electric vehicles are more eco-friendly when evaluated on
this factor alone but while evaluating the eco-friendliness of electric vehicles, it is important
to consider the ‘well-to-wheel’ emissions. It is an overarching term that includes air
pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted during the production of energy needed to power the
electric vehicles. Amount of emission depends on the resources used for the production of
electricity. All electric vehicles emit 4500 pounds of carbon dioxide when well-to-wheel is
taken into account (Faisal, 2017). Natural gas is the cleanest form of fossil fuel as it emits 50
to 60 per cent less carbon dioxide as compared to the coal. Even if the primary source of
generating electricity is coal, it emits lesser carbon dioxide when compared to conventional
cars. Therefore, in order to reduce emissions, while once primary motive of buying electric
vehicle is to be green than one has to use renewable sources of energy for powering their car
which include wind, solar, or geothermal energy.
XYZ to Help Trends and Emissions
As discussed above that well-to wheel emission reduces the efficiency of electric vehicles
because the type of method used for producing electricity is also important in order to reduce
greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Research said that if wireless charging methods are
developed for powering the electric vehicles than this problem of well-to-wheel emission can
be reduced to a great extent and the zero emission targets can be achieved. There had been lot
of research and studies carried out in this field. UK is testing out roads that charge the electric
vehicles as they go. Israel has found out a solution of wireless charging roads for electric
vehicles. This technology involves installation of inverters along the road side that provides

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power to the copper plates which are embedded in the road. It requires the installation of the
similar copper plates in the electric vehicle’s underside. And when the vehicles pass over the
charged roadway, power will be generated when the two fields interact. This technology is
known as the Inductive Power Transfer technology which will help in making eRoad system
for EV charging (Vilathgamuwa & Sampath, 2015). Inverters installed to the road side that
provide electricity to the plates, can be charged by the use of solar energy by implementing
solar plates on the street lights and the poles near the road side. This would eliminate the
well-to-wheel emission to a great extent and help in achieving the zero emission targets from
the electric vehicles (Hanley, 2018).
Similarly, this technology can be adopted by our company XYZ where company will embed
the copper plates in the road surface while constructing the roads using recycled plastic
waste. Roads constructed using the recycled plastic are made hallow and has the space for the
installation of drainage water pipes and other elements like cables and many more. In the
same way, we will embed copper plates in this hallow space sandwiched between the plastic
road layers.
Company Exploitation
Implementation of products
While constructing the plastic roads in UK, our company XYZ can implement this
technology in the roads. This technology involves the installation of embedded systems that
provides wireless charging to the electric vehicles when they go over the road surface. The
technology named as Dynamic Electric Vehicle Charging (DEVC) could charge two vehicles
moving on the track embedded with the Inductive Power Transfer technology (Suh & Cho,

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2107). This would have the capacity of charging at the rate of 20kW while vehicle moving at
the high speed.
For the implementation of wireless charging technology under the road surface has two key
features. These are Power Inverter on the road side that provide electricity to the embedded
plates in the road, a Roadway Infrastructure that consist of the copper plates embedded in the
road.
The construction of such road is carried out by first creating the plastic aggregate that acts as
the raw material for the road construction. This raw material is heated at the temperature of
170 degree Celsius and the plastic road is fabricated using this raw material. Two coils,
transmitter and the receiver coils are used. These coils are electrically insulated from each
other. These coils will be placed inside the hallow space in plastic road. Copper plates will be
connected to the inverter placed near the road side that supply electricity to the plates. Same
copper plates will be installed in the electric vehicles (Menaria & Sankhla, 2015). When the
electric vehicles pass over the road surface, plates create magnetic field and provide charging
to the vehicle. Inverter placed near the road side will be connected to the solar plates that will
provide charging to the inverter.

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Source: (Hull, 2017)
Source: (Swartz, 2018)

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Opportunities for XYZ
Today, global warming has become a critical issue for the environment and usage of plastic is
one of the major factors that causing this. As plastics are non-biodegradable, so these have
become a topic of concern for the environment. Many researches and techniques are being
developed to manage the plastic waste. Also, a huge amount is spent on the construction and
repairing of roads. Therefore, both of these two problems can be resolved by using plastic
waste material for the construction of roads, this will help in using and managing huge
amount of plastic that has become an big issue for the environment and also save the large
amount that is spent on the construction and repairing of roads. Plastic roads can be
constructed in half of the cost and remain last three times longer than the traditionally paved
roads. Additionally, these roads can be installed 70 per cent faster than those conventional
roads. These advantages of plastic roads open new scopes for our company as recently very
few organizations are present who are working on this concept. Till now no company has
developed this strategy of integration of wireless charging solution with plastic roads,
therefore, this concept will definitely give solution for the plastic waste as well as for
increasing pollution due to conventional vehicles. And as ours is the first company that will
implement this technology, has big scope in future to grow with this technology.
XYZ VS Wavin
Wavin is from one of the longest established organization which was established around 60
years back. Wavin is the popular supplier of plastic pipes systems. In 2016, Wavin in
partnership with KWS and Total, started to develop the very first plastic road using the
recycled plastic waste. Wavin is developing hallow plastic roads that has pipes and water
drainage system under the road surface. On the other hand, our company will use the concept
of plastic roads made from using the recycled plastic but in addition to that we will embed

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copper plates under the road surface that will charge electric vehicles when they pass over the
road.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that plastic roads can be the future roads. Due to the threat to
the environment because of increasing usage of plastic, it has become very important to
manage and recycling of plastic waste. Using plastic for the road construction has given a
fabulous alternative for the management of plastic. Roads constructed using plastic are more
efficient, cheap, and long lasting than traditional roads. Along with plastic roads, we can use
embedding wireless charging solution for the electric vehicles under the road surface, so that
provide charging to the electric vehicles and thus helps in reduction of vehicles that use fossil
fuels and leads environmental pollution. Therefore, it can be said that, integration of plastic
roads with wireless charging solution for electric vehicles technology is going to be a future
of road construction in UK.

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Reference
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