Invention of Plastic was like a God’s gift to mankind and it’s spread across the globe for its various qualities like easily mouldable in any shape or size , light weight like a carry bag and huge structures of plastic as strong as a metal , easy to carry , easy to produce , abundant availability of raw material , can be given any colour . Plastic has now entered into every walk of our life , be it our kitchen , toys for children , automobile , furniture or wherever till your imagination goes . It has grown to such a level that discarded and waste plastic has formed layers under our earth as plastic cannot die or cannot be destroyed as it is not bio degradable and burning it gives birth to vicious gases unsuitable for mankind .
Whole world has put brakes on further production of plastic items but the basic question still exists and that is how to utilize existing plastic waste where it should not effect mankind. Across the world there are efforts being made in this direction .
One of the initiatives taken in this regard is to use waste plastic for road construction. The waste plastic should be heated at a temperature of 100- 120o C and allowed cooling for an hour and then after that it is to be blended with bitumen. After mixing with the bitumen the properties so formed are suitable for the use of construction of roads. This initiative is already taken by Maharashtra government by constructing a 250 m stretch road connecting Lawrence road and Cross road within Pune Cantonment Board limits. This type of road construction proves to be very economical and durable as compared to the ordinary Bitumen road construction. The ratio of waste plastic and bitumen is around 90:10. The length of the road construction by this technology totally depends upon the quantity of plastic.
Higher the quantity of waste plastic more will be the length of the road constructed. The Government of Maharashtra is trying to adopt this technology for length up to 1500 km.The collected plastic waste needs to be clean and cut so that the size of particle should range between 2.36 mm and 4.75 mm and the thickness of the plastic waste should be maximum up to 60 micron. It is then heated around 150 – 170oC in the plant. After heating in the pant then allowed in the open atmosphere to cool down, it gets soft and get coated over the surface of the aggregate. The bitumen which is pre heated around temperature 160o C is then mixed with the plastic and the mixture is cooled to 110 – 120°C for laying the road. This type of road construction not only provides greater strength as compared to the ordinary bitumen road but also provides resistance towards water stagnation, avoiding of plastic burning and also less consumption of bitumen. That’s why this type of construction proves to be economical in the state of Maharashtra.
By
Honey Gaur,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering, Kalinga University
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