The River Tweed, which runs through the Scottish Borders, is perhaps most famous for the cloth that bares its name. The river also acts as an environmental protection pioneer as its waters flow beneath the Easter Dawyck Bridge, the longest in the world built using recycled plastic. The bridge was built by recycling 50 tonnes of waste and can bare the weight of vehicles of up to 44 tonnes and is 100% recyclable.

The bridge —the appearance of which is the same as those traditionally built in the area— was assembled by a local, Peeblesshire-based contractor in record time: two weeks for the columns and just four days for the girders. A total of three spans, each nine metres in length, combine to create a 30-metre (90 feet) long structure built using a material that is both light and extremely stable which does not corrode, does not rust, does not require painting nor any form of treatment of maintenance.

That a bridge of such innovative characteristics can be found in the middle of the Scottish countryside, close to the small town of Peebles (just under 9,000 inhabitants according to the most recent census), is the result of the work of two main players. Firstly, the Advanced Materials Center of Rutgers University in the USA and secondly, two companies, one from either side of the Atlantic, who decided to incorporate the use of recycled plastic into civil engineering projects.

Read more about it at:  https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/scotland-home-worlds-longest-recycled-plastic-bridge