Guessing the usage of plastic waste? Well, Maha govt will use it for road construction and renovation

Mumbai, June 26: With the plastic ban in Mumbai coming in to effect from June 23, many questions were raised as on the usage of the remaining unused plastics. Well, here is something to know! The Maharashtra government is planning to re-lay over 10,000 km of roads using 50,000 tons of plastic waste in the next six years.

Moving a step ahead, the Maharashtra government has directed the Public Works Department making it compulsory to use the waste plastics for the construction of roads and repair the blacktop (Tar) on the roads. This step has been taken to sustainably utilize the increasing amount of plastic waste that has collected with the civic bodies as the plastic ban in Maharashtra continues to come down heavily on manufacturers and consumers. In fact, the Mumbai civic body has already collected 1.42 lakh kg of plastic waste!

In addition to tackling the plastic waste problems, the move will ensure the roads with better quality at a lesser price. This is because roads built with plastic-asphalt tar have improved durability, better water-resistance and require less maintenance when compared to those built with conventional materials.

The waste plastics will be beneficial to the PWD as they will get a bio-degradable plastic waste that can be used to repair roads. The PWD will get the collected non-biodegradable plastic waste, with the responsibility to recycle it and use it for road construction and repairs. It will also have to specially mention the details of the aforementioned waste plastic usage in road tenders.

Excitingly, following a central government notification in November 2015, the Maharashtra PWD had asked its regional offices to use waste plastic in building certain stretches of roads on a pilot basis in February 2016.

So for everyone who was wondering what will be done with the plastic waste that has been recently banned, here is the answer. While the question prevailing the substitute of the bags been eliminated, the Maharashtra government has got cloth bags for sustainable working.