Plastic waste pave roads in cleanest city Mysuru

The cleanest city in country is going Bengaluru way to reduce plastic pollution

For the first of its kind in history, plastic mix road has been laid in Mysuru. Thanks for the initiatives of Mysuru City Corporation which decided to go Bengaluru way and bring down the plastic waste menace in city.

As a pilot project, ten stretches in Railway Colony in Hebbal has been selected to construct roads using bitumen technology, that is mixing waste plastic granules in hot bituminous mixes to asphalt roads.

Its learnt that the roads asphalted using plastic granules will be of much better quality, and its expected that the life of the road will be 2-3 times more. The waste plastic will be cut down to less than 5 mm size and will be mixed with hot bituminous before being laid down on the road. Already six roads have been asphalted and studying the durability of roads the authorities will further asphalt roads.

There are even plans to set up a plastic recycling unit in Mysuru. The Bengaluru based private company will be visiting Mysuru soon in the regard. The technology has been brought in by K K Plastic Waste Management Ltd, an Bengaluru based company, which has innovate technologies to handle the plastic waste by reusing it for asphalting of roads and also have laid several roads in Bengaluru.

About 420 tonnes of waste is generated in Mysuru every day, of which its estimated around 20 tonnes is plastic waste. Only half of the waste is recycled and the remaining dumped in land fills. The move to benefit immensely to address plastic waste menace in city.

Corporation Commissioner Jagadish said: 'Mysuru being awarded already as cleanest city in country, this sorts of measures will go a long way in keeping the city clean and protecting environment. By reusing plastic the amount of plastic going to landfills can be avoided to higher extent. After studying the results in Bengaluru we decided to built plastic mixed roads. If everything goes as per the plan, a unit will be set up in Mysuru.'
MCC Superintendent Suresh Babu said: 'As per the studies its proved that the usage of plastics in bituminous mixes the quality of roads will be last longer. Quite a good quantity of plastic waste is generated in the city and the move will help to address the plastic waste to higher extent.'

'Though the Corporation has banned the usage of plastic, it has not been possible to completely stop the use of plastic. Plastic waste are non biodegradable and pose a serious threat to the environment. Along with creating awareness, this sorts of finding alternatives we can protect environment,' says environment officer speaking in anonymity.