How To Create An Eco-Friendly Driveway/Pathway For Your Home Or Business

A growing number of people are looking for ways to introduce greater sustainability and earth-friendliness into their homes, business premises, and lives. Creating an eco-friendly driveway or pathway for your home or business is one way to do this.

Find out how to make your garden more eco-friendly with a SureSet driveway or pathway below. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of sustainability, take a look at some of our previous projects, and discover how our sustainable paving ranges offer flexibility of design.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Sustainability
If you’re thinking about using eco-friendly driveway materials at your home or business, you may find it helpful to consider the advantages and disadvantages of sustainability. There are pros and cons that may influence your decision, and it’s important that you are aware of them.
Advantages Of Sustainable Driveways/Paths

• Recycled materials – One of the biggest advantages of sustainable driveways and pathways is that they can be made with recycled materials. This means there’s less pressure on the environment through sourcing new building materials. Using recycled materials also helps to reduce landfill space.
• No ice formation in winter – Using SureSet to create an eco-friendly driveway or pathway offers the benefit of permeability. During winter, water seeps through the minute gaps in the paving and into a drainage system or the ground below the driveway or pathway. This keeps the surface warm and prevents ice from forming, making it safer for driving and walking.
• No puddles in summer – Permeable resin bound paving prevents puddles from forming when it rains in summer or the other seasons of the year. In addition to reducing the slipping hazard of puddles, you’ll have less trouble with algae and moss.
• Cool in summer – Another benefit of using eco-friendly driveway materials such as SureSet is that the generally lighter colour of those materials, and the circulation of water and precipitation, keep those surfaces cool during summer.
• No heat island effect – Your driveway or pathway won’t be much warmer than the immediate surroundings, so it won’t produce or contribute to the heat island effect that plagues villages, towns, and cities.

Disadvantages Of Sustainable Driveways/Paths

• Different maintenance requirements – One of the disadvantages of eco-friendly driveways and pathways is that they have different maintenance requirements to those made from traditional paving materials such as asphalt and concrete. Some permeable paving can become clogged with sand and other fine particles if the surface isn’t cleaned regularly or if you’ve installed a drainage system and reservoir beneath the driveway or path.
• Not as strong as traditional paving – Recycled paving materials aren’t as strong as asphalt or concrete, so consistent heavy pressure could lead to the pores in the driveway or pathway collapsing. A better option is to use a combination of SureSet’s natural aggregates and recycled aggregates. Use the natural aggregate for the majority of the paving, and the recycled material for decorative elements.
• Costs may be higher than traditional paving – Some recycled and natural eco-friendly driveway aggregates may be slightly more expensive than asphalt or other traditional paving materials.

Examples Of Previous Work With Sustainability In Mind
The following two case studies offer fine examples of using eco-friendly paving to create a driveway and car park islands with sustainability in mind.

Natural resin bound driveway for a home in Wales – Holly Cottage on the northeast coast of Wales was a newly remodelled home with an existing loose gravel driveway that looked tired and messy when the owner contacted SureSet. After the gravel was removed, the base was regulated level ready for the laying of an open-graded asphalt binder and edging made from high-end grey block paver. Installers Coatech combined SureSet’s ProResin with our 6mm Barley Butter natural aggregate and laid over the base to create a beautiful, open SuDS-compatible eco-friendly driveway.

Recycled car park islands in Fordingbridge – When upgrading a car park in Fordingbridge, Hampshire’s New Forest District Council needed a solution that took the car park’s many trees with irregular surface-level roots into account. Rocon Contractors LTD contact SureSet to resurface the car park “islands” and the tree pits in those islands. Approved installer MJS was sub-contracted to remove excess soil from around the root clusters, trim back small protruding roots safely, and lay SureSet paving up around the trunks. The resin bound solution consisted of 6mm Cappuccino natural aggregate with a permeable asphalt base and 6mm FlexiSet Bronze with a Type 3 base. Suitable for pedestrian use only, FlexiSet is a 50% recycled rubber and 50% 6mm natural aggregate and resin. The result is a solution with a beautiful finish that works for pedestrians and for the trees.
The Impact This Can Have On The Planet
Eco-friendly driveway options can have a positive impact on the planet. Let’s take a look at how this can make a difference:

• Water supply – Permeable paving allows rainwater to sink into the ground below the surface, ensuring the natural water table is replenished and kept at a healthy level.
• Flood reduction – Stormwater runoff contributed significantly to the disastrous floods in the UK in 2007. Permeable paving means less runoff enters the roads and stormwater systems, helping to decrease the risk of urban flooding.
• Irrigation – With the help of a drainage system under your eco-friendly driveway, you can redirect water into your garden. ‍
• Biodegradation – SureSet permeable resin bound paving can help prevent some pollutants from entering stormwater systems. Those pollutants include engine grease and oil slick from cars parked in driveways, detergent and soap from car washing, harmful chemicals such as chloride and pesticides, and organic elements such as mud, sand, and sediment.
• Urban heat – As mentioned above, eco-friendly driveways are a good way of dispersing thermal pollution, thereby lessen the urban heat island effect.

Natural And Recycled Materials Offer Flexibility
SureSet’s eco-friendly driveway materials offer flexibility in terms of the design and size of your driveway and pathways. Our natural aggregates are an excellent choice for paths, driveways, and parking areas as they have the strength to withstand ordinary vehicle traffic.

You can combine them with our recycled aggregates to create decorative elements or for added eco-friendliness in areas not be used by vehicles. Our Recycled Materials range uses waste or by-products such as 100% recycled glass, crushed mirrors, and crushed shells (crabs, lobsters, oysters, and scallops).

In a bid to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic used in SureSet installations, we offer the use of the EcoBatcher. The specially designed machine dispenses resin directly into a forced action mixer, which is an aspect of resin bound paving’s 3-part polyurethane system that traditionally is packaged in two plastic buckets before being shipped to the installer.

In its first year of use, the EcoBatcher reduced plastic usage by 10,000 buckets, which equates to more than 5 tonnes of plastic not used. Other benefits of using this machine for installations include reduced on-site workload, reduced warehouse labour, savings on time and money spent on labour on-site, as well as packaging, excess resin, and waste collections.

As you can see, the advantages of eco-friendly driveways and paths far outweigh the disadvantages. Choose SureSet to create a sustainable driveway or path for your home or business.

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