NEW DELHI: State owned Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has built an 850-meter-long road using “varying concentration (1 per cent-3 per cent) of single-use plastic” alongside bitumen, a company statement said. The industry has previously demonstrated recycling opportunities to keep plastic in use whose alternative in paper or metal have much higher energy and water footprint.
“As per the lab tests, the waste plastic roads have the advantages of higher strength, increased durability, lesser rainwater seepage due to plastic in the aggregates, better binding/bonding of mix and lesser stripping with fewer pot-holes,” IOCL said.
It has been reported that about 16 metric tonnes of plastic waste from single-use carry bags/ packaging film was used in the construction of the road. “Performance of this road will be monitored by IOCL R&D centre in association with CSIR-CRRI, and also fine-tune the concentration of single-use plastic to be added,” IOCL statement said.