Last week, Boral laid 1000 square metres of asphalt at Ballarat Airport that included crushed recycled glass sourced from the city's glass recycling program operated by Vic Waste Solutions.

The goal of the trial was to demonstrate that glass could be diverted from landfill and used on roads, car parks and sporting facilities across Ballarat.

About 26 tonnes of crushed glass was used in the asphalt, or around a week and a half's worth of glass.

Vic Waste Solutions manager Jon Kennedy said the trial was one of several it was conducting to find uses for the recycled glass.

"The aim of the game is to be able to use the product locally so we'll turn it into something that we can use locally and this fits the bill perfectly," he said.

"We average anywhere between 15 and 20 tonnes a week. With this project taking 26 tonnes, it's gonna be approximately a week and a half worth of material.

"Boral has got an asphalt plant here in Ballarat and we can divert a local product out of the waste stream and use it here, locally in Ballarat so it ticks all the boxes for the circular economy."

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The new material is currently being tested internally by Boral and by VicRoads for its use on roads, but is available to be used on private projects such as car parks.

Boral project manager Damien Hayes said the new method would reduce the use of raw sand and aggregate in asphalt surfaces and should not cost councils more than a traditional road surface.

"You shouldn't notice any difference at all, it's all black bitumen material. Unless you were to cut it open and dissect it, that's when you would see it," he said.

"We're actually hoping to have some kind of cost benefit for the customer, if not a neutral cost to the customer going forward."

The trial followed a project conducted by the City of Ballarat this year in which council paved a Sebastopol road using a similar method.

Central ward councillor Belinda Coates said it was heartening to see any project that worked towards a circular economy.

"It's heartening to see initiatives that encourage reducing, reusing or recycling products and I think we need to see that more of that across every industry, really, to work towards a circular economy," she said.

"That one was a trial, not a City of Ballarat project, but the City of Ballarat will be continuing to raise the bar on environmental sustainability in our procurement for products and services.

"For environmental sustainability in terms of reducing emissions and working towards becoming a carbon neutral city, we will need to see more of that across every industry and every level of government as well."

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