Plastic Roads….a win-win innovation

While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic — with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once — and then thrown away. Plastic waste is now so ubiquitous in the natural environment that scientists have even suggested it could serve as a geological indicator of the Anthropocene era.

Only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. About 12% has been incinerated, while the rest — 79% — has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.

What is the Solution…?

Plastic roads are made entirely of plastic or of composites of plastic with other materials. Plastic roads are different from standard roads in the respect that standard roads are made from asphalt concrete, which consists of mineral aggregates and asphalt.

Since plastic roads are a relatively new idea, construction processes vary. In Jamshedpur, India, roads are created from a mix of plastic and bitumen. In Indonesia roads are also being built using a plastic-ashpalt mix in many areas including Bali, Surabaya, Bekasi, Makassar, Solo, and Tangerang.

Indian Government stand:

Plastic garbage is commonly seen around the country and has started causing several problems. Plastic waste clogs drains, causing floods. It chokes animals who eat plastic bags, etc. Plastics found in fields blocks germination and prevent rainwater absorption.

The government has made it mandatory for road developers to use waste plastic along with bituminous mixes for road construction to overcome the growing problem of disposal of plastic waste in India’s urban centers.

Road developers will now have to use waste plastic along with hot mixes for constructing bitumen roads within 50 km of periphery of any city that has a population of over five lakh. In recently released guidelines for developers, the government said that in case of non-availability of waste plastic, the developer has to seek the road transport & highways ministry’s approval for constructing only bitumen roads. 

Plastic man of India:

At 73, Dr Rajagopalan Vasudevan is roughly as old as the mass production of plastic. But that is not the reason why the chemistry professor has a soft spot for the much-maligned material.

“Plastic isn’t the problem,” the venerable scientist says in his office in the southern Indian city of Madurai. “We are. Plastic wouldn’t clog our oceans or our landfills if we didn’t throw it there in the first place. And there is so much we can do with it instead.”

“Ban plastic and it can severely affect the quality of life for a low-income family,” he says. “But if you burn it or bury it, it’s bound to affect the environment.”

And so, he began a series of experiments in his workshop to discover effective disposal techniques. In a molten condition, he found that plastic had the property of an excellent binder. Acting on the principle that like attracts like, Dr Vasudevan looked at another chemical of similar nature: bitumen, a black tarry substance that was being combined with gravel to lay roads.

“Bitumen, a highly heterogeneous mixture of hydrocarbons is in effect, composed of polymers similar to plastic,” he says. When molten plastic was added to stone and bitumen mix, Dr Vasudevan found that, true to its nature, plastic stuck fast and bound both materials together.

“There is always a risk when heating or burning mixed plastic waste in an open environment when the composition of the plastic waste is unknown,” she said. “It is important to find more applications for mixed plastic waste but even more important to ensure that more environmental pollution is not created in doing so.”

Nonetheless, at least 16,000km of road have subsequently been paved in the state of Tamil Nadu. The national government has since approved the idea and sanctioned at least 13,000km across the country to be paved in the material as well. Of this, 8,600km have already been completed, says Dr IK Pateriya of the rural development ministry in Delhi.

“Our planet is drowning in snack-food packaging that is non-recyclable,” says Almitra Patel, a member of India’s supreme court committee for solid waste management. “If (this technology is) seriously adopted in all cities for all multi-film laminates, it has the potential to achieve near-zero landfill, leaving almost nothing for final disposal.”

Hope these plastic roads will serve both-

-      Use of polluting Plastic in best possible way

-      Long-lasting all-weather roads.

Source:

-      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_roads

-      //economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49919167.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

-      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/09/the-man-who-paves-indias-roads-with-old-plastic

-      https://www.unenvironment.org/interactive/beat-plastic-pollution/

-      https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/in-focus/article/revolutionary-road-can-plastic-roads-be-the-ultimate-answer-to-earth%E2%80%99s-mortal-enemy/172028