Plastic roads

WHAT IS THE PLASTIC ROAD?
 The Plastic Road is a road based on recycled
plastic.
 It is prefabricated and features a hollow space that
can be used for various purposes.
 This includes water storage, transit of cables and
pipes, heating roads, generating energy etc.
 The Plastic Road elements allow for circular reuse.

HOW WAS THE IDEA CONCEIVED?
 Problems-plastic waste, increasing need for
mobility etc.,
 Stringent requirements & demanding functionality.
 Only asphalt?
 Long lifespan ,short construction & maintenance
time, higher noise reductions and economical.
 What does it take to fulfil these requirements?
 These questions and conditions inspired the idea
of the Plastic Road.

WHEN DO YOU EXPECT TO BUILD THE FIRST
PLASTIC ROAD?
 This technology is getting replicated very fast in
Jharkhand, after the plastic road laid at
Jamshedpur city on 30 November 2011.
 After a lot of research, lab tests and internal pilots,
the first Plastic Road in the world was opened on
September 11th 2018.
 The municipality of Zwolle and the province of
Overijssel (NL) together are the launching
customers of the Plastic Road.
 The first pilot is a bike path of 30 meters.

BASIC PROCESS
Segregation
Cleaning process
Shredding process
Collection process

JAMSHEDPUR CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
 It is a mix of plastic and bitumen. Roads made from
recycled plastics
 First step - collect and manage the plastic material.
 The plastics involved consists of post-consumer
products such as product packaging. Others are
polyethylene terephthalate , polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
polypropylene (PP), and high and low density
polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE).
 Second step-These are sorted from plastic waste.
 Third step-After sorting, the material is cleaned, dried,
and shredded.
 Fourth step-The shredded plastic is mixed and melted
at around 170°C.
 Fifth step-Hot bitumen is then added and mixed with
the melted plastic. After mixing the mixture is laid as one
would with regular asphalt concrete.

PROS AND CONS OF PLASTIC ROADS
PROS:
 Faster construction and less maintenance time
 Higher quality and a longer lifespan
 A lightweight prefabricated construction
 Incorporation of Heating and power generation
 It can be quickly assembled or disassembled ,if it
was constructed as interlocking pieces
 Increase in plastic roads causes reduction in
asphalt construction which leads to beneficiary
reduction in 2% global carbon emissions (due to
asphalt)

PROS AND CONS OF PLASTIC ROADS
CONS:
 Toxic present in the co-mingled plastic wastes
would start leaching
 But the presence of chlorine will definitely release
HCl gas
 Creates harmful plastic particulates which can
worsen current micro plastic pollution problem
 When melted, plastics of different types may phase-
separate and cause structural weaknesses, which
can lead to premature failure

PLASTIC ROADS IN BANGALORE
 K. Ahmed Khan is an
Indian scientist and
businessman
who made success in
using plastic for road
construction.
 He is a proprietor of
KK Plastic Waste
Management.
 BTS 7th Main Road off of
K H Road, is plastic
blended. (Outside
Shanthinagar Bus Stand)

 Mr. Khan forms a compound called polymerized
bitumen by mixing plastic with asphalt
 According to him recycling plastic is a better option
than banning it in an impractical world without
plastic
 But he also have many queries regarding plastic
roads like us such as
 How can a waste material we see in our
dustbins everyday be used to make roads?
 If concrete roads generate potholes how can a road with
plastic survive?

 Khan says ,"When my younger brother Rasool
Khan and I were thinking for a solution to reduce
the harm caused by our manufactured products, we
realised that bitumen and plastic both belong to the
petroleum family and both are non bio-degradable. I
started thinking of ways to use them together and
judicially,“.
 Bitumen is used for road construction. But when
bitumen alone is used, the road tends to wear out
in some time, and the road starts mixing with the
soil. At the same time, plastic, once melted
becomes extremely hard in just ten minutes.

 Khan further remembers: "We thought why not mix
both plastic and bitumen. We then tried mixing
both. Later we experimented by putting the mixture
in some small potholes in Jayanagar, unofficially for
two years from 1998 to 2000. To our surprise the
results of these experiments were positive."
 This successful experiment lead Khan to approach
RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and the
Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi (CRRI)
wherein some of the professors helped him conduct
the research.

 After two years of research , and a small trial in a
structure of 500 meters ,the report was released in the
year 2002 thereby approving the technology. This was
an official report by the University of Bangalore.
 The same year the report was released, Khan
approached the then Chief Minister S M Krishna. And
they(Khan & his brother) were asked to give a
presentation .
 "The Chief Minister was impressed by our presentation
and gave directions to the municipal corporation for our
pilot project, which was to lay roads of 40kms. Later
those roads were closely monitored and till today they
have not worn out," says Khan proudly.

 The new technology saw an official inauguration of
the Rajarajeshwari Arch road by S M Krishna, later
in the year 2002, it was after that grand
inauguration that K K Plastic Waste Management
Private Ltd got their name and therein began their
journey to fame.
 Khan later went ahead to the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for
further research, which he sponsored. The report of
this was out in November 2002. And then he got his
first order from the BBMP (then called BMP) for 230
kms of roads in Bangalore.

COLLECTION OF PLASTICS?
 Even it was plenty it was not easy.
 Thus he contacted the push cart garbage collectors
and some rag pickers for help and gave them an
offer more than what they were getting.
 He offered them Rs.7 to Rs.8 per kg to the rag
pickers which was more than what the rag pickers
usually got.
 So the word spread amongst the rag pickers and
more and more came in number.
 "Each rag picker can bring 20 to 25 tonnes of
plastic each per day," he claims.

THE MAKING OF A PLASTIC ROAD
 The process starts when rag pickers take their
collection to the office of K K Plastic waste
management on Kanakpura Road. There it is
cleaned, segregated by different grades of plastic,
then made into a fine powder and taken to the site
of construction.
 On the site the powdered plastic is then mixed with
bitumen in a hot mixer and the mixture is laid on the
road.
 This technology can be done by two processes,
one is dry and the other is a wet process.

THE MAKING OF A PLASTIC ROAD
DRY PROCESS:
 "We are currently using the dry process of making
a fine powder of the cleaned plastic and mixing with
bitumen (plastic and bitumen are mixed in equal
proportions) and then on the site of construction
this is mixed with the aggregates and put on the
road.
WET PROCESS:
 bitumen and plastic mixture is mixed with tar only.
But that requires a lot of investment.
 The setting of the bigger plant for the wet
processing will cost around Rs.5 to 6 crores,
according to Khan.

PLASTIC MAN OF INDIA
 A Government order in
November 2015 has made it
mandatory for all road
developers in the country to
use waste plastic, along with
bituminous mixes, for road
construction.
 This is to help overcome the
growing problem of plastic
waste disposal in India.
 The technology for this was
developed by the ‘Plastic Man’
of India, Prof
RajagopalanVasudevan,
Professor of Chemistry at
Thiagarajar College of
Engineering, Madurai.

FUTURE SCOPE
 As the population increases, the solid waste also
increases proportionally.
 The best alternative is the usage of waste as
construction material assuring a good disposal.
 As this method is economic the practice would be
on satisfactory extent aiding the future generations
for a good solid waste management

Plastic roads

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Plastic roads