The technology for using waste plastics in tar roads has been developed by Dr. R Vasudevan and his team in Madurai, Tamil Nadu at the Thiagarajar College of Engineering. His contacts are given in the video description.
50 percent of all plastic waste in India is used for packaging which is particularly amenable for road making. Multi-film sachets, foils, PU foam, thermocol can all be shredded and used together in bitumen roads.
How plastic roads are made
For Normal roads, bitumen is added to heated stone and laid on the surface of the road space. For plastic roads, shredded waste plastic is added to heated stone such that the plastic melts and forms a layer on the stone. Bitumen is then added to this mixture which is then laid on the surface of the road space. The plastic acts as a strong binder between stone and bitumen. Such a road is nearly twice as strong as a normal road and highly durable. Water does not penetrate inside and peel away the bitumen like in normal roads.
Government support to plastic roads
The first plastic road was laid in Tami Nadu in 2002. By now, 20,000 kms of rural plastic roads have been laid in Tamil Nadu. The National Rural Roads Development Agency uses this process to make 5000 kms of roads in India a year. A Government of India notification of Nov 9, 2015 directs that plastic roads will be laid in all urban areas wherever population exceeds 5 lakhs.
Indian Roads Congress SP 098 of 2013 details the use of waste plastic in hot bituminous mixes (dry process) in wearing courses.
In Plastic Roads, one-tenth of bitumen is saved per km - worth about Rs. 50,000. We are able to use 1 ton of waste plastic per km of plastic roads - that equates to 10 lakh thrown carry-bags !
The 40 lakh kms of roads in India can use up all our waste plastic. Only 20 % of Indian roads are black-topped and there is huge scope for improvements in road transport infrastructure using the plastic roads technology.
Much better pothole repairs too can be achieved by adding 3-5 % shredded thermocol to hot bitumen.
Scientific instruments used to test the process
The road in this video looks like it may have been built just six months ago. But it was actually built in 2002 ! It employed a process where shredded waste plastic substituted for 10 % of the bitumen. Multifilm, foil, all types of waste packaging plastic can be used for making such a road after shredding into 2-4 mm sized pieces. PU Foam, which today forms a large component of packaging, can also be shredded and added. So can thermocol.
The Chemistry lab at Professor Vasudevan's department has acquired machines which assisted in the development and testing of this process.
These machines include the compression testing machine, a marshall stability value testing instrument to test stability of roads, a bitumen penetrometer to test bitumen, etc.
There is also a computer lab of the chemistry department which has instruments like the thermo gravimetry analyzer, differential scanning calorimeter, optical flouroscent microscopy, fourier transformed infra red spectroscopy, brook field viscometer, etc.
A patent has been awarded to the Thiagarajar College of Engineering for the plastic roads process.
Smart india needs smart roads
The technology for the use of plastics in road has been developed by an Indian, in India, for use in India.
The Tamil Nadu Government set up self-help groups in every district to gather plastic packaging wastes. The Government has given loans to such self-help groups to purchase shredding machines. They shred the collected plastic and keep it ready for the Government to purchase such plastic from them for road making.
This technology can help make the best use of scarce fossil fuel resources and waste plastic packaging that currently clogs up India’s water channels and spoils our land.
Smart India needs Smart Roads. Smart Roads can be made by adding waste plastic to them. So waste plastic packaging can be a useful resource for India as long as it is kept segregated, collected and stored at a central place for shredding and adding to roads. If the home and its surroundings are clean of plastic packaging waste, the city is that much cleaner.
Every citizen who complains of a dirty street or a dirty country can begin in their home with keeping their dry waste separate and giving it separate.
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