Mumbai all set to get plastic roads

Six years after the concepts approval by the Indian Road Congress IRC the city is set to get plastic roads The civic body has issued orders to all asphalt plants to provide road material that has a mixture of waste plastic from February 15 Contractors must use only plasticmixed bitumen for roads henceforth However at the moment they have only one vendor providing road material made of plastic wasteThe method has been adopted for roadbuilding in 11 statesThe experiment began in Chennai when Rajagopalan Vasudevan a professor from Madurais Thiagarajar College of Engineering created the method of building roads by recycling plastic waste After the Centres 2015 order made use of plastic waste in road construction mandatory many metro cities including Chennai Pune Indore Jamshedpur adopted the methodThe method was tried in Dadar in 2014 but the BMC Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation did not adopt it In 2018 it made the Dmonte Park road extension in Bandra west using the method The step has been deemed successful as the road is in good condition While the stretch measures not more than 100 metres and is not a very busy road it is in good condition after two years said Asif Zakaria Corporator from BandraThere is tonnes of plastic waste lying unused in the citys godowns There is 84602 kg plastic seized in June 2018 during a drive in BMCs godown It has all types of banned plastic material said an officer from BMCs Market departmentThe Dmonte Park road extension has been deemed a successful experiment Pic Anurag AhireAfter an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of it the BMC now wants to build roads with it There are 12 approved asphalt plants Road contractors can take material only from them As per the guidelines we have instructed them to use 8 per cent of plastic in the bitumen said a senior BMC officerHow does it workThe plastic has to be of the category mentioned by the Indian Roads Congresss guidelines It has to be cleaned dried shredded and then heated up to 165degC Next it is added to the bitumen mix which is also heated up to 160degC This final mix is used for constructing roadsThe only vendor providing this mix is a Punebased company which buys plastic from rag pickers or small vendors processes it and then supplies it to plants BMC officers claim that the vendor can provide enough material to all 12 asphalt plants Once preparation of the mixture starts other vendors from the city will come forward said an officerOnly Low or HighDensity Polyethylene Polyethylene Terephthalate PET and Polyurethane can be used in road construction which includes carry bags sacks milk pouches bin lining cosmetic detergent bottles bottle caps drinking water bottles household articles etcWater bottles credit cards toys pipes electrical fittings furniture folders pens medical disposable made up of Polyvinyl Chloride PVC and food trays egg boxes disposable cups protective packaging from Polystyrene PS cant be used for roadconstruction as they release lethal levels of toxins Also blackcoloured plastic waste is a result of repeated recycling and is not recommended for roads8Proportion of plastic to be used in the bitumen11No of states that have introduced plastic roadsHow is this betterHigher resistance to deformation and waterinduced damagesImproved stability and strengthEffective disposal of waste plasticCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates