ROURKELA: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has showed the way towards gainful use of plastic wastes and initiated a new project of utilising it in road construction, the first such initiative taken up in Odisha.
As a pilot project, a stretch of 1 km road has been laid from Rourkela Club to Shaktinagar Chowk mixing shredded waste plastic in road tar. RSP sources said as plastics are non-biodegradable, its hazardous impact on the environment is irreparable, adding that a whopping 40 per cent of plastic wastes inevitably get littered and choke the environment.
Safe disposal of plastic wastes remains a huge concern as burning them causes serious health hazards emitting carcinogenic gases. They said studies have revealed that waste plastic could be used in small doses in bitumen which helps in improvement of longevity and pavement performance of road by substantially developing strength, durability, resistance to water-induced damage and deformation.
RSP initiated the process of using plastic wastes in road construction as per the Indian Road Congress Guidelines. During door-to-door domestic waste collection, the plastics are segregated at different intermediate garbage stations spread across the captive township of RSP. Then the plastic waste materials get transported to a store at Sector-15. The plastic waste material is shredded thereafter using the facilities of recycling locally and transporting it to Hot Mix Plant to mix it with the aggregates used for tar concrete.
When the aggregate is heated, the plastic gets coated uniformly over the aggregate within 30 to 60 seconds, giving an oily look. The plastic-waste-coated aggregate is mixed with hot tar and the resultant mix is used for road construction.
Incidentally, the RSP is carrying out massive road repair works in the township using in-house road tar. It has also plans to increasingly use plastic wastes to construct more green roads and significantly curb the chances of plastic wastes damaging the environment.