Plastic used for Cumbria road resurfacing

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 £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."