Environment enemy plastic can be our development friend; it is being converted into roads

NewsBharati    23-Jul-2018
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Mumbai, July 23: Our state government has put a ban on the use of plastic in order to save our environment from the clutches of pollution of every kind but here is the unique way the plastic can be used as it cannot b decomposed for years and years. Plastic can be used to make roads. Yes, it is correct that it can be used to make roads.

 

Union Minister for roads and highways, Nitin Gadkari in Lok Sabha also emphasized on the use of waste plastic and waste rubber in road construction as it will reduce the cost of construction plus the quality of the road construction will be better. And also the environment will be also safe from the eyes of plastic pollution.

What makes plastic a potential alternative to asphalt, the thick black sticky substance that has long been the material of choice for highway engineers?

A road fashioned out of recycled plastic, according to the company, would be able to survive temperatures as low as -40 degrees and as high as 80 degrees Celsius. In fact, the road would last three times as long as a normal road — potentially as long as 50 years. A plastic road would also be “unaffected by corrosion” and require less upkeep, which theoretically would mean fewer traffic jams.

Ditching asphalt for plastic also makes sense if you consider what the more traditional building material does to the environment. Asphalt is to blame for 1.6 million tons of CO2 that stream into the atmosphere every year. That makes up 2% of all road transport emissions, according to The Guardian.

But we’ve already seen hints of how it can work. Jamshedpur has paved nearly 50 kilometers of roads partly, if not entirely, with recycled plastic. Bottles and wrappers are reportedly hauled to collection centers, shredded, and mixed with asphalt.