Fast Company reports that the startup recycles old asphalt instead of building new one, and the company uses some sort of plant-based substance to stick the old asphalt pieces together.

First, the team at Carbon Crusher grinds the asphalt that needs repairing, meaning that they remove the top layer of the existing road and then they use lignin, a plant-based adhesive used in the paper industry, to glue the material together.

Their equipment can be used with concrete as well, which is another high-carbon material, as long as it is not reinforced with steel.

Haakon Brunell, cofounder of Carbon Crusher said that "we're making roads that are part of the solution to the climate crisis, not part of the problem and it also happens to be a cheaper, more durable way of rehabilitating roads."

Last year, Haakon Brunell and Kristoffer Roil, the other cofounder of the company were searching for a meaningful way to reduce emissions and they realized that there was an opportunity within the roads.

Brunell says that "there hasn't been much innovation, to speak of, since the Roman age."

carbon crusher

The company said that the approximately 65 million kilometer road system around the world emits around 400 million tons of CO2 every year in construction and maintenance.

The company's own process has been tested in the last decade in Norway to help repave roads by the third cofounder, Hans Arne Flåto.

Carbon Crusher's equipment is capable of crushing asphalt and rock finely, so there is no need of new materials, and the company states that lignin can make roads last longer, too.

The startup wants to extend its operations outside Norway as well, further into Europe and it is also working on a software that is able to detect changes in roads, so that the team can see which roads might need a repair.

Brunell thinks that the world has enough roads right now and they only need to be maintained, rather than building more, as this would increase the emissions.

"The world doesn't necessarily need new roads. It needs better roads", he concluded.