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Plastics waste particularly from polyolefin films
causes littering problems all across the country, with the major
contributor to this problem being the littering habit of the people.
A unique usage has been initiated by Thiagarajar College of Engineering,
Madurai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The institute, instead of the normal disposal of recycled plastics
through land filling or incineration, has conducted an extensive
research on its usage to modify bitumen at about 10% level. The
modified bitumen when used in construction of road, enhances Marshall
value significantly. Further the college has developed a special
method of incorporating the recycled plastics in the aggregate with
uniform coating. Bitumen modification is generally done with Atactic
PP, SBS or EVA. However, the modification of bitumen with recycled
plastics would provide an economical option. More importantly, it
would provide an alternate method of safe disposal of the plastic
waste. Among the common plastics that are found in the packaging
waste, PE seems to provide better results in penetration test compared
to PP and PS. On the other hand, PP seems to increase ductility
more than PE and PS. However all the results seem to indicate an
improvement in the performance of bitumen.
The Indian state of Tamilnadu has taken this experimental work
further and has already constructed more than 10 roads between 2001-2003.
Will the success of this pioneering work help in removing the carry
bags and other plastics films that generally get scattered because
of the littering habit?
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