Green Roads

KAUST launched its Green Roads initiative in support of the circular carbon economy.

A new initiative in collaboration with Dow Chemical Co, Averda and Napco National, the program uses plastic waste as a raw material for new road infrastructure.

Known as the Green Roads initiative, the project demonstrates the potential of an innovative technology that allows plastic to be made into a sustainable bitumen using a conventional modifier.

The new material will be sued to construct a proof of concept road on the KAUST campus, with the goal to build roads in other locations across the Kingdom.

As part of the initiative, hundreds of volunteers from KAUST and the broader community in Thuwal participated in a clean up campaign in April 2022, removing waste along a stretch of the KAUST Jeddah highway.

The plastic waste collected will be used a raw material for the new road..  the road is expected to sustain prolonged exposure to to external factors such as high temperatures and traffic loads, reducing the need for road maintenance.

The effort aligns with the Kingdoms growing focus on environmental protection, sustainability and the circular carbon economy that encompasses the four Rs: reduce, remove, remove, reuse and recycle.

In 2021, the Kingdom launched a whole of government and whole of society environmental program called the Saudi Green imitative (SGI) which aims to grow the green economy and protect the environment. With more that 60 initiatives under its umbrella SGI focuses on a range of priorities, including carbon emissions, planting millions of trees throughout the country and region and implementing biodiversity protection plans.