For the first time, as part of a pilot project, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has used waste plastic in construction of one kilometre road stretch from Rourkela Club to Shaktinagar Chowk here.
Head of town engineering department P K Sahu said, “It is for the first time in the state that waste plastic is being used successfully”. The 1km road, has been laid as per the directives of the Indian Road Congress.”
Answering another question, Sahu said, “We will definitely use in our future projects subject to availability of the material.” The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 also recommends use of waste plastic in construction of road.
RSP is doing door to door collection of domestic garbage. The waste plastic is segregated at different intermediate garbage stations spread across the Steel Township. It is then collected and transported to an exclusive store at Sector- 15constructed for this purpose.
The plastic waste material is shredded thereafter using the facilities of local recyclers, and transported to hot mix plant. And then it is mixed with the aggregates used for tar concrete.
The plastic-waste-coated aggregate is mixed with hot tar and the resulting mix is used for road construction.
The regional officer of state pollution control board here Hemendra Nayak said, “ this should be adopted while laying roads to minimise plastic menace.”