In 2025, Nebraska put two million plastic bags into a 4,000-foot road; it became the state’s first recycled-plastic road

A road in South Sioux City, Nebraska, now carries millions of discarded plastic bags beneath its surface. Completed in June 2025, the project incorporated about two million shredded bags directly into the top three inches of asphalt along a 4,000-foot stretch of Foundry Road near Siouxland Freedom Park. The initiative also includes an extension of the Al Bengtson Bicycle Trail, giving the local community a second piece of public infrastructure constructed with reclaimed materials.

The idea came from research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Jamilla Teixeira, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was already studying how waste plastic could be used in asphalt. Her research focuses on how these mixtures respond to cracking, rutting and moisture. South Sioux City later brought that work into a real road project.

The road is being treated as a pilot, not a finished solution. Nebraska’s changing temperatures and severe weather will provide a demanding test for the new mixture. Engineers will need time to see how the pavement performs under real traffic and seasonal conditions.


The asphalt also contains 25% Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, another recycled material already used by the Nebraska Department of Transportation. With $500,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, the project offers researchers a chance to study whether waste materials can become part of durable infrastructure.

Nebraska Recycled-Plastic Road Research: Why Engineers Are Testing 2 Million Plastic Bags in Asphalt

The unusual ingredient is part of a larger effort to find useful destinations for waste plastic while improving pavement materials. Jamilla Teixeira, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was already studying how waste plastics could be incorporated into asphalt when South Sioux City approached her about the project. Her research examines how these mixtures perform against problems such as cracking, rutting and moisture damage.

In simple terms, engineers are not replacing an entire road with plastic. The recycled material is shredded and incorporated into an asphalt mixture, where it becomes part of the pavement material. The Nebraska mixture also contains 25% Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, or RAP, another recycled material already widely used by the Nebraska Department of Transportation. That makes the project a test not only of recycled plastic, but of how several recycled materials can work together in pavement.

The project received $500,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, helping fund the construction and research. The recycled-plastic asphalt is being monitored over time to measure its performance under real traffic and Nebraska’s seasonal conditions. Researchers will compare factors such as cracking, rutting and moisture damage to determine whether the material can offer a durable alternative for future road projects.

Nebraska weather is part of the experiment

That location matters. Teixeira has described the South Sioux City project as a pilot designed to determine how the mixture performs under Nebraska’s extreme weather conditions. A laboratory test can reveal important properties of a pavement material, but a road exposed to real traffic, seasonal temperature changes, moisture and everyday wear provides a much tougher test.

That is why the road should not yet be treated as proof that plastic-based pavement will become the standard for American highways. The project is being used as a testbed, and its long-term performance still needs to be observed. The central question is whether the potential environmental benefit can be matched by dependable performance over years of use.

The scientist behind Nebraska’s plastic-road experiment

Teixeira’s work sits at the intersection of materials science and infrastructure. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, her research interests include alternative paving materials, waste plastics, recycled crumb rubber and sustainable infrastructure. Her research program is also examining how different materials behave inside pavement, rather than treating recycling as an environmental goal separate from engineering performance.

The South Sioux City project grew directly from that university research base. City administrator Lance Hedquist had been following pavement innovations elsewhere and contacted Teixeira while she was investigating waste plastics in asphalt. To translate laboratory theory into working infrastructure, the project brought together materials tech firm Dow, local supplier First Star Recycling, and paving contractor Barkley Asphalt, creating a practical coalition that transformed a research question into something local drivers travel across every day.

Is Nebraska the first to try it?

Nebraska is the first state in the country to build a road of this kind, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. But the underlying idea is not entirely new in the United States: Colorado and Wisconsin had previously invested in asphalt made with shredded plastic. UNL also notes that India began experimenting with plastic roads more than 25 years ago.

What makes the Nebraska project particularly useful is the opportunity to evaluate the material under local conditions and through an academic research partnership. Instead of asking only whether plastic can be incorporated into asphalt, engineers can watch what happens after the pavement is placed in service. That distinction matters because a material can look promising in a laboratory and still face different challenges once it becomes part of a working road.

For now, Foundry Road is best understood as a long-term engineering experiment rather than a finished answer to America’s plastic-waste problem. Researchers need time and data to determine how the pavement performs, particularly in the areas Teixeira’s work is designed to examine: cracking, rutting, moisture resistance and durability. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln continues to describe recycled plastics as part of broader research into more sustainable infrastructure materials.

The intriguing part is that the experiment does not require drivers to imagine a futuristic city. They can simply drive across the road and, without seeing anything unusual beneath their tires, become part of a test of an idea that could influence future pavement design.

If the material holds up over time, South Sioux City will have demonstrated something larger than an unusual recycling project: that a troublesome waste product can potentially become part of infrastructure built to last. If it does not, the road will still provide engineers with valuable evidence about where the approach falls short. That is what makes Foundry Road worth watching—not because the plastic road has already solved a problem, but because Nebraska is testing whether it can.