1 lakh kilometer of road made with plastic wastes, government aims to double it

New Delhi : The plastic waste materials which cannot be recycled are being used for the construction of roads across the nation. The central government has informed that till date they have constructed around 1 lakh kilometer of roads via such plastic waste.

The construction of every kilometre of road required nine tonnes of bitumen and one tonne of plastic waste. This means for every kilometre of road, one tonne bitumen is saved, which costs about Rs 30,000.

Plastic roads consist of 6-8 per cent plastic, while 92-94 per cent is bitumen.

For the first time, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced the use of plastic for the construction of roads in 2016. Since then, the roads have been constructed using plastic in 11 states. According to a report by Hindustan, the government aims to double the figures in next fiscal year.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) used plastic waste in its roads for the first time in 2018. Assam started using the waste material from this year.

Plastic has been used in the 270-kilometre-long Jammu Kashmir National highway. About 1.6 tonne of plastic waste was used in the two-kilometre-long stretch of Delhi-Meerut highway news UP Gate, according to Hindustan.