Waste plastic for road construction on trial in Chandigarh

Next time you throw away your plastic carry bag, you may be paving the way for the road to walk on and also, maintaining the cleanliness of your surroundings.

Using waste plastic, including carry bags, as road construction material, the Chandigarh administration has constructed a 1.2 km dual carriageway here on a trial basis.

The Engineering Department of the administration has constructed the carriageway of 1.2 km out of a total length of 2.4 km for slow moving traffic in Sector 27 using five per cent waste plastic with bitumen.

"If the road proves its worth during the current monsoon and the coming winter then more such roads would be constructed here," Finance Secretary S K Sandhu said.

He said during experiments, high-density and low-density plastic waste was mixed in the bitumen. But it was found that high-density plastic waste was melting at about 220 degree Celsius whereas the melting point for the bitumen is 116 degree Celsius. Both the products did not go together.

Sandhu said local authorities in Bangalore had become the first city to use the plastic waste as they had constructed a one km road in 2002.

"The road is in satisfactory condition", he said adding no further construction was undertaken there.

Sandhu said low-density plastic waste was melting at 160 degree Celsius and the bitumen could be heated till 145 degree Celsius. Both made good material for road carpeting, he said adding the polythene waste was taken from the industrial area and it was shredded into small pieces before being mixed with bitumen.

The samples of bitumen plastic mix have been sent to the laboratory for conducting Marshal Stability test. This project was initiated on the directions of Chandigarh administrator S F Rodrigues who took keen interest in the developments.

Sandhu said the road chosen for the pilot project had many potholes, and also poor riding surface. Physical inspection of the road after re-carpeting showed the quality of the road was quite satisfactory, he said adding "it has more density and riding surface is better."

Asked about the cost of construction using waste plastic, he said it had come to be at par with the conventional type of road.

"It can be cost effective if taken up on a large scale and if the experiment proves successful, more roads will be constructed using plastic waste, he added.

According to Sandhu, the Union Territory, with a population of nine lakh plus and a sizeable migratory population coming here for work in offices of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and central government besides banks and other organisations, the plastic waste left behind by the people, which is non bio-degradable, was causing problems for disposal.