Have You Ever Heard About "Plastic Road"?

My readers would know I have challenged myself to publish an article every day. If you haven't read my previous article, here is the link to my previous article if you are interested in reading about the challenge in detail.

So I was thinking about the topic on which I can write the article. I could not think of it so I decided to think about it later and started scrolling social media platforms. And luckily, I found a topic to write about when I saw news of Coca-Cola and Islamabad Capital Development Authority signing a project of building the first Plastic road in Islamabad.

I was kind of surprised because I have never heard about the term Plastic road before and I am positive most of you guys won't have heard too. I was curious to find out what it is and decided to enlighten my readers about my findings too.

What is a plastic road made of?

Plastic roads are made either using entire plastic or of some of the composites of the plastic mixed with other materials as per Wikipedia. Though no roads have made using plastic entirely as per my research and it is just an idea which is not been implemented yet.

As we all know standard roads are different than plastic roads because Asphalt concrete consisting mineral aggregates and minerals. While waste plastics are mixed with Asphalt mixture for building plastic roads.

Process of Mixing Plastic with Asphalt

Waste plastic goes through four process

1) Segregation

Waste plastic is collected and then non-recycled plastic is segregated from recycled plastics. Non-recycled is then collected because it cannot be disposed of.

2) Cleaning

Then cleaning of the non-recycled plastic begins after segregation

3) Cutting into tiny Pieces

Then cutting off those plastics started. It can be cut from 2 to 3 mm or according to the size of asphalt pieces.

4) Mixing

And the last process is mixing the plastic with asphalt. It gets melted before mixing with the Asphalt.

Which countries have built plastic road

The first plastic road was built by India in 2001, credit goes to Rajagopalan Vasudevan, who is an Indian Scientist who came up with the idea of plastic road. Plastic roads are built in different cities of India.

United Kingdom is the second country that has also built Plastic Roads and Pakistan is the 3rd country that is about to start building plastic roads.

Advantages of Plastic Roads

• It can be constructed faster as compared to Standard road

• Cheaper than standard roads because less asphalt is used as compared to standard roads

• Asphalt is made of petroleum crude oil so using less asphalt can result in saving a lot of money

• Plastic road has a long life as compared to standard road because plastic is the most amazing binder

• Build from waste plastics that are hazardous

• More resistant as compared to standard roads because plastic does not absorb water which result in less need to repair it

• Needs less maintenance as compared to Standard roads

• Most importantly, these roads can result in the reduction of waste plastics which has become a bigger problem these days

Disadvantages of plastic road

There is no proven disadvantage of plastic roads. It is just a theory that maybe the plastic roads can release toxic gases in the future.

Conclusion

No doubt it's a great idea to help reduce the number of waste plastics which is resulting in polluting our oceans, earth and our entire planet. Even disposing of them by burning them result in result of release of poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and non-metal oxides which results in greenhouse effects (A natural process that warms the earth's surface).

Even disposing of them by landfilling also failed because plastic cannot be decomposed and it also results in releasing gases like chlorine which can badly affect the organisms living inside the water and soil if chlorine combines with other chemicals. It can also cause respiratory disorders if humans and other animals eat fish contaminated with those chemicals.

So the plastic disposal by mixing it in the Asphalt is not a bad idea. Even India has made it compulsory for road construction to add 10% plastic in road construction. It's time for the world to get united and think about a good solution to get rid of waste plastic which is extremely hazardous for our splendid planet Earth.

I have used some sources for finding out about Plastic roads.

Those source links are;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_road

https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/blog/roads-made-with-recycled-plastic-bottles-a-game-changer

Thank you for taking some time out and reading this article.