MCG holds meeting to reiterate usage of plastic waste in road construction

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has once again reiterated the need for using plastic waste in road construction to its engineering wing, said officials

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has once again reiterated the need for using plastic waste in road construction to its engineering wing, said officials on Friday. A meeting was conducted in the MCG’s Zone 3 office in Sector 42 on Thursday regarding the poor usage of plastic waste in the construction of roads by the engineering wing.

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During the meeting, MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh directed the engineering wing to use at least eight percent of plastic waste mixture in bitumen for constructing roads. He further told them to purchase the mixture from MCG’s concessionaire at ₹23 per kilogram, said officials.

The MCG had opened its plastic shredding centre in Begumpur Khatola last year on May 18. MCG had passed an order encouraging the use of plastic in road construction on September 16 and November 7 last year. “It has been decided with the MCG commissioner that it is made mandatory for all the concerned officers to use plastic waste in road construction and provision of same will be made in all the estimates/DNITs/tenders of all the bituminous road works with immediate effect (sic),” read the notice sent by chief engineer ND Vashisht to all nine MCG executive engineers. A copy of the notice is in possession of Hindustan Times.

A senior MCG official privy to the matter said that due to unfavourable weather conditions, plastic waste could not be used over the past seven months. “The plastic shredding centre was opened in May, and just a month later, the pre-monsoon showers had started. Rains and high moisture weather came to an end around September, and it was only around that time that plastic waste was used in roads constructions. A month later, the construction ban was enforced and then the winter set in. The minimum temperature needs to be in excess of 15 degrees Celsius to undertake bitumen-related work or else the mixture will not stay on the road surface,” said the official.

The official said that the MCG is expecting the minimum temperature to be above 15 degrees Celsius in March. It hopes to proceed with all road construction activities then.

In November 2018, the agenda for using plastic in construction of roads was passed during the MCG’s house meeting at John Hall. In the same month, MCG’s engineering wing visited the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to learn the method of using plastic waste in roads and brought back a sample of a plastic road for testing purposes.

Just a month later, Sunil Bose, former head of flexible pavement division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), conducted a seminar with all officials of MCG’s engineering wing at the Mini Secretariat to explain the concept of using plastic waste in road construction.

The same month the MCG constructed its first-ever plastic road in the city, a 100- metre stretch in Sector 51. Since then, plastic roads have been constructed in Sushant Lok-1, Palam Vihar and South City-1 last year.

As per MCG officials, using plastic waste in roads make it more durable than conventional bitumen roads as plastic does not allow water to stagnate on the surface thereby preventing the formation of potholes. They further said that it also conforms to the guidelines specified in the Indian Road Congress (IRC).

“Usage of plastic waste in roads is a proven concept and, over the last 14 months, we have tried it extensively on city road to know about its long-term benefits. Hence, we are looking to replicate the same across all city roads to bring down maintenance costs and increase durability of roads,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG.

A plastic road has an average lifespan of 8-10 years compared to a conventional one, which has five to six years.

BOX:How plastic waste is used in bitumen roads

1.Any form of plastic, barring black polythene which has high toxic content, is first shredded into small pieces.

2.Subsequently, the shredded mixture is heated at 165 degrees Celsius

3.The melted mixture, about 6-8% measurement, is right away mixed in the hot bitumen mixture and spread over the top layer of the road surface