Maharashtra's roads to go plastic from now on
In a pioneering move, Maharashtra Government has made it compulsory to utilize plastic-waste for constructing and repairing bituminous or asphalt roads. The PWD order passed yesterday said that after Maharashtra banned plastics in March, a large quantity of seized plastic is available. In fact, BMC has collected a whopping 1.42L Kg of plastic-waste till now. This can be mixed with hot-tar and used.
Roads to be inspected, put to test every three months
The order or state government resolution (GR) further said that all roads made of plastic waste will be inspected and put to quality tests every three months. "A report will be submitted to the state government after a year", it explained. To kickstart the project, PWD will start recycling the plastic waste to churn out the mixture to be used for road construction/repairs.
How is the mixture made?
To every 100 kg of tar, 3-6 kg of plastic is added to make the mixture to build the roads. Plastic carry-bags, sacks, milk pouches, bin linings, cosmetic and detergent bottles, drinking water bottles, bottle caps, household articles will be used.
Maharashtra had decided on the move in April
Each area chief engineer will be supervising the junior officers to verify if the plastic-asphalt tar mix is really being used or not. Yesterday's GR was passed after the Maharashtra-government'>Maharashtra Government had decided to use 50,000 tons of plastic waste for re-laying 10,000kms of roads in April this year. PWD had already re-laid 1,000kms of roads using 5,000 tons of plastic waste in 2017-end.
Center had mandated use of plastic for road-work in 2015
Additionally, after the Center mandated use of plastic for road-work in 2015, PWD used plastic-asphalt tar in some roads in the state on pilot basis. It observed that those roads entailed much less maintenance than the ones built with conventional ingredients. Also, the mixture was a sturdier one and the roads were being repaired at a lower cost. Even the CSIR echoed PWD's version.
The plastic-asphalt mix is a chemistry professor's brainchild
This idea of using plastic waste for roads is however not the government's. It's the brainchild of a Madurai college chemistry professor, Rajagopalan Vasudevan. He made the mixture and tested it on a road in 2002. Four years later, his college patented the technology.
