Green initiative of SAIL Rourkela Steel Plant | Road laid using waste plastic

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SAIL Plastic
SAIL Plastic

For those who can’t say NO to plastic, SAIL shows a way in which the use of plastic will get a resounding YES from the environment watchers.SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant has initiated a new project of utilising waste plastic in construction of road, doing so for the first time in the state of Odisha. As a pilot project, a stretch of one km of road between Rourkela Club to Shaktinagar Chowk in Sector-2, Rourkelahas been constructed mixing shredded waste plastic in road tar.

The dreadful consequences of the plastic waste are well known. Most of the plastics are non-bio degradable and take hundreds of years to decompose, thereby posing a serious threat to the environment. An estimate says that out of the total plastic waste generated in India, about 60% gets recycled, while the rest 40% litters and chokes the environment. Burning of plastic in the open also causes serious health hazards for the people around as it emits carcinogenic gases. Hence safe disposal of waste plastic is an imperative environmental issue.

Studies have revealed that waste plastic has great potential for use in road construction as its addition in small doses, about 5-10% by weight,to bitumen helps in substantially improving the marshall stability, strength, durability, fatigue life, resistance to water-induced damages, resistance to deformation and other desirable properties of bituminous mix, leading to improved longevity and pavement performance. The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 also recommenduse of waste plastic in construction of road. In tune with these recommendations, SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant initiated the process to use plastic waste in road construction as per Indian Road Congress Guidelines.

After door to door collectionof domestic garbage, waste plastic is segregated at different intermediate garbage stations spread across the Steel Township, which 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 to mix 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 resulting mix is used for road construction.

It is worth mentioning here that, at present SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant is carrying out massive road repair jobs in the township using in-house road tar. The use of plastic waste in road construction not only reduces the damage to the ecosystem but also leads to its gainful utilisation.  SAIL plants have plans to lay more such green roads with waste plastic in the coming months. The initiative of using waste plastic in road laying is also a significant step towards Swachh Bharat.

 

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