In another attempt to deal with environmentally hazardous plastic wastes, the Delhi Government has shown its keenness on using waste materials like plastic bags in making roads. The Pioneer reports that the authorities have decided to go ahead with the construction of plastic roads in the Capital. Delhi will be second city after Bangalore to use waste material for road constructions.

Impressed with the quality of plastic roads in Bangalore, Public Works Department Minister Dr AK Walia has asked the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation (DSIDC) to work out terms and conditions of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Bangalore-based company. The technology, Dr Walia said, had been used to construct some roads in Bangalore and proved successful. Apart from ensuring sturdy roads that would withstand the monsoon fury, such roads would also take care of the plastic wastes generated in the city, he added.

Bangalore-based KK Plastic Waste Management Limited on Wednesday made a presentation before the Delhi Government and offered to utilise plastic wastes in road constructions in the Capital.

The technology entails using of plastic wastes along with bitumen - the conventionally used ingredient in making roads. It can take a dry-mixing or wet-mixing route. In dry-mixing, shreds of plastic wastes (mainly polythene bags) are mixed with bitumen. In wet-mixing, plastic is reduced to a powdered form and mixed with bitumen. The technology can help overcome the drawbacks of conventional roads as plastic roads do not develop cracks easily when water seeps in. Plastic also resist softening of bitumen at high temperature and on application of friction.

Sources in the government said the only flip side of the technology is the capital cost. For any given stretch of road, the cost of dry-mixing will be 15-20 per cent higher than that of conventional technology, while wet-mixing will cost about 30 per cent more. However, Dr Walia said that the expense can be recovered in the long run as these roads require less maintenance. "Moreover, using plastic means solving a mammoth environmental problem - on an average two tonnes of polyblend is required for each kilometre of road," said Dr Walia.

A senior official of KK Plastic Waste Management Limited told The Pioneer that about 40 km of roads have been laid using the technology in Bangalore at TV Tower Road, Millers Road, Girinagar Road, Vidyapeetha Road, Outer Ringh Road, Bagalur Road, Old Madras Road, Shankar Mutt Road, Eden Garden Road, Rajarajeshwari Main Road, Cunningham Road and West of Chord Road. According to the company, more than 100 tonnes of plastic wastes have been utilised in the above roads.