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Proposed plants to convert plastic waste into tiles and diesel
New Delhi
New Delhi
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to build waste processing plants to convert plastic into tiles and material, which can be used for construction of road and produce diesel, in a bid to prevent indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste which is a major source of water and land pollution.
The DDA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the three municipal corporations and the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum in Dehradun. The processing plants will initially convert plastic waste into plastic agglomerates or a large lump which can be used for making tiles and roads.
Subu R, commissioner land disposal, who signed the MoU, said, “As per the MoU, the DDA will provide the land for setting up the processing plant. The corporations will provide the waste and the CSIR-IIP will be the technology partner. They will also provide the technical supervision on license basis.”
Though the DDA is yet to identify the land for the project, an official from the agency said, the processing plants will be set up at different locations, at least one in each corporation’s jurisdiction. A senior EDMC official said, “The responsibility of the three corporations will be only to supply segregated plastic waste. The plant and its operation will be managed by the DDA.”
While the plan is also to set up facilities where plastic waste can be processed into diesel, Anjan Ray, director of CSIR-IIP, said the initial plants in Delhi will be pre-treatment mechanisms.
Ray said the plastic waste supplied by the civic bodies is dirty and contaminated. At the pre-treatment plant the waste will be first cleaned and processed into large lumps.
Explaining the process involved, he said, “The plastic waste supplied by the corporations will be first cleaned and then heated and compressed to form large lumps. These lumps can be supplied to industries to make tiles or for road construction. We also plan to set up a plant to produce diesel from the compressed plastic lump.”
CSIR-IIP has developed the technology for processing plastic waste into fuel (diesel). It is currently being tested at the institute.
“We started with a small plant at our institute over five years ago to process 10kg waste plastic daily and make 8 litres of diesel. Now, we have built and commissioned a much larger demonstration plant on our campus that can process 1,000 kg of waste plastic daily and convert it into diesel. This demo plant is currently being run in campaigns and fine tuned so that even bigger versions of 10 tonnes and more per day of waste plastic can be designed, built and operated in mega cities such as Delhi which produce hundreds of tonnes of plastic waste daily,” he said.
DDA officials said the locations of the plastic processing plants will be finalised within a month.
