Who the f**k is Captain Planet?!

Plastic waste is a menace and has become a serious problem, especially in urban areas, in terms of its misuse, its dumping in the dustbins. But how to tackle the problem? Not only environmentalists, but also scientists realized that recycling is the best alternative to get rid of waste and convert them into something useful for our world today.

However, plastic has posed some problems, being one of the materials that is indeed hard to recycle, the laboratory studies conducted in India in utilization of waste plastic bags in bituminous concrete mixes seems to solve these difficulties.

And how it works? Here you find a detailed introduction about the project:

Reuse of plastics waste in Road Construction

Polymer blended Bitumen shows higher Softening point, lower penetration point, and better ductility. Polymer coated aggregate blended with Bitumen shows higher Marshall value and better stripping value showing that the mix is more suited for road laying.

Process of Road laying using polymer- aggregate – Bitumen mix

The plastic waste (bags, cups, Thermocole) made out of PE, PP, & PS are separated, cleaned if needed and shredded to small pieces (passing through 4.35mm sieve) The aggregate (granite) is heated to 170oC in the Mini hot Mix Plant and the shredded plastic waste is added, it gets softened and coated over the aggregate. Immediately the hot Bitumen (160oC) is added and mixed well. As the polymer and the bitumen are is the molten state (liquid state) they get mixed and the blend is formed at surface of the aggregate. The mixture is transferred to the road and the road is laid. This technique is extended to Central Mixing Plant too.

Salient features of the polymer-waste-bitumen mix Road:

• Road strength is twice stronger than normal roads;

• Resistance towards water stagnation i.e. no potholes are formed;

• Less bleeding during summer;

• Burning of plastics waste could be avoided

• It doesn’t involve any extra machinery;

• It doesn’t increase cost of road construction; and

• It helps to reduce the consumption of bituminous mix vis-à-vis reduce cost

It is observed that addition of plastics waste upto 10-15% by weight of bitumen resulted into higher values of softening point and lower values of penetration, which are appreciable improvements in the properties of the binder. This has resulted and withstood higher traffic load and high temperature variation. Several experimental stretches have been laid in more than 15 locations in Tamilnadu using both Mini hot-mix and Central mixing plants.

Economics of Road Construction:

There are different types of bitumen roads. They are, Dense Bituminous Macadam, Bituminous Macadam. These roads differ in 3-ways i.e. 1. Composition of the aggregate; 2. Type of bitumen used; and 3. Thickness of layer. Bitumen is an useful binder for road construction. Different grades of bitumen like 30/40, 60/70, and 80/100 are available on the basis of their penetration values and these grades can be used as IRC Specifications. Waste plastics (10% in place of bitumen) can be used for these different types of bitumen roads. The technology of road laying is very much the same as prescribed by the Indian Roads Congress (Section 500, IV revision) Specifications. A detailed description of the material required for laying of Semi Dense Bituminous Concrete (SDBC) 25 mm road (on existing road) is described below: -

Materials:

For 1000Mx3.75M (25mm) Road         11.250 tons (60/70 grade) bitumen needed

Shredded Plastics Required           10% by weight (passing 4.74mm sieve& retaining 2.36 mm).

Bitumen replaced (saved) by 10/ % Plastics:             1.125 tons

Actual Bitumen Required:                    10.125 tons

Aggregate (11.2mm)                           70.875 Cu.M

Aggregate (6.7mm)                             43.125 Cu.M

Aggregate Dust:                                 23.625 Cu.M

Cost:

The total cost including material as mentioned above, labour charge etc. (At Madurai) is approx. 5.00 lakh, however, the cost may be different from place to place and have to be calculated accordingly. The cost break-up is given below :

Collection of littered plastics Rs. 0.50 lakh

Cost of shredder and other equipment : Rs. 0.50 lakh

Laying of road with material, labour etc.:Rs. 4.00 lakh

Total Rs. 5.00 lakh

 

Source: http://www.cpcb.nic.in/oldwebsite/Plastic%20Waste/Re-use_of_plastic_waste_in_road_construction.html

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