Porous Lane’s recycled tyre pavement wins 2023 Premier’s Sustainability Award

Bradley Camgoz Posselt (Client Engagement Director, Porous Lane) and Dr Amir Mehdizadeh (Managing Director, Porous Lane). Image: Richard Timbury (Diprose Media)

Porous Lane, a Melbourne-based company, has won the Waste and Recycling Solutions Community Champion award in the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards.

Porous Lane was co-founded by Dr Amir Mehdizadeh and Associate Professor Mahdi Disfani from the Department of Infrastructure Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. The company uses University of Melbourne technology to create highly permeable, environmentally friendly pavements and roads out of discarded tyres.

As well as reducing landfill waste, the pavement filters rainwater and reduces stormwater runoff and pollution in waterways. It is less expensive, more durable, easier to maintain, and provides better water filtration than competitors, as well as utilising at least 50 per cent recycled material.

Since 2021, the company has diverted 11,000 tyres from landfill, giving them new life through the installation of over 3,500 square metres of paths. Tyre waste has replaced 50 per cent of virgin pavement material at Porous Lane and, if adopted widely in Australia, may help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent in pavement construction.

Porous Lane’s engineered solution offers hope for less flash flooding on roads – offering a robust, flood-free sealed surface, instead of impermeable sealed surfacing. The company is working with local councils in Victoria and other states in its bid to roll out the technology on pavements and roads around the nation.

Hosted by Sustainability Victoria, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards honour organisations that exhibit the depth and ingenuity of sustainability in industry, business and the community across Victoria.

Finalists and winners are regarded as trailblazers, paving the way for Victoria’s transition to a circular, climate-resilient economy. The winners were announced at a ceremony at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on 23 November.

Porous Lane, with the support of the University of Melbourne Start-up ecosystem (TRAM), has started its journey to raise capital and partnerships for a rapid scale-up and advanced manufacturing.