New Delhi (NVI): Slowly but surely, India is scripting a green success story by recycling plastic waste for building roads as it has constructed over one lakh kilometres of roads in at least 11 states using discarded plastic.
And this plastic-reuse momentum is increasingly picking up with each passing year since 2015 when Government of India made it mandatory for all road developers to use plastic waste for constructing roads. The mandate had come after ‘Plastic Man of India’ Padma Shri Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a professor from Madurai’s Thiagarajar College of Engineering, laid out a process of building roads by recycling plastic.
To give a further push to this innovative green concept, the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has recently formulated IRC SP: 98:2013 ‘Guidelines for the use of Waste Plastic in Hot Bituminous Mixes (Dry process) in Wearing Courses’ based on laboratory as well as field performance studies and investigations carried out in India, the Lok Sabha was informed here today.
In a written reply in the Lower House, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari said that to encourage use of waste plastic on National Highway (NH), his Ministry has issued Guidelines for its use within 50 km periphery of urban areas having population 5 lakh or more.
“The Guidelines also stipulate to take up a stretch of at least 10 km as pilot project for assessment of its performance. Waste plastic has already been utilised in wearing course of about 50 km of NH stretches,” he informed the Lok Sabha.
It is worth taking note of India having built one lakh kilometres of roads in at least 11 states using discarded plastic. This innovative drive will not only help curb road accidents but will also go a long way in supporting the renewed fight against plastic in India, which has the world’s second largest road network.
According to a report by World Economic Forum, the roads made from waste plastic are more durable against extreme weather conditions like floods and heat as compared to the conventional roads. The roads made out of plastic waste do not develop potholes, which, according to a study, were responsible for one tenth of road accident deaths in India in 2017
According to a report, India produces about 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily, of which about 9,000 tonnes is recycled. The remaining plastic is either burnt leading to air pollution or ends up landfills or clogs drains.
Chennai is one of the first and leading cities in India to implement professor Vasudevan’s technology. The city has, so far, used 1,60,000 (1.6 Lakh) kilos of plastic waste to build 1.035 kilometres of roads. Prominent areas in the city like the N.S.C Bose road, Halls road, Ethiraj Silai street and Sardar Patel street are layered with plastic components.
Two-time winner of India’s cleanest city title, Indore recycles 100 per cent of its plastic waste and has used 5,000 kilos of waste plastic to build 45 kilometre stretch of roads in the last two years.
-nad
