Used plastics in shredded form will be procured by the municipality from a private plastic goods recycling unit.
The IPF has been looking for suitable partners to undertake the experiment of using plastic waste in the construction of road. Later, it has convinced the Kalyani municipality to launch a pilot project in using plastic litter in road construction.
IPF has partnered with several municipalities in the State of West Bengal in garbage collection in a scientific way, approved by WBPCB.
IPF President KK Seksaria has reported that the industry body, representing plastic goods manufacturers, is keen to see the success of the project to spread the scheme to other municipalities. If other municipalities follow Kalyani municipality and take similar initiatives, it will go a long way to resolve the problem of environmental pollution by plastic goods.
The benefits of using plastic waste in road construction:
It helps in reducing road building cost and keeps the environment safe by solving the problem of environmental pollution.
Using of plastic waste to the extent of 10-15% of the total concrete mix, inclusive of bitumen, will save road construction cost with bitumen price moving currently between INR35 to INR40 per kilogram.
R Vasudevan, head, department of chemical engineering, Madurai University has pioneered the technology to blend polymer with bitumen in road. Later, Indian Centre for Plastics in Environment took the initiative to spread the technology across the country.
These types of projects are already in progress in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Initially, these types of experiments on a mini scale have been undertaken at IIT (Kharagpur) campus within the area of Haldia Petrochemicals.
Generally, the major part of waste laminated plastic bags/ pouches are used for food packaging.
