India is struggling hard to fix two of its major problems—bad roads and mounds of plastic waste. Because of which half of India’s states and union territories have introduced a blanket ban on plastic bags. When the Maharashtra government enforced restrictions on usage of plastic items recently, vendors and shopkeepers are devising ways to replace the polluting material with alternatives. Yes, the government has adapted strict measure to curb the usage of plastic bags. But what about the bad roads? The country has poor quality of roads and highways. Do you know that technology can incorporate plastic waste in the construction of roads? Well, the north-eastern state of Meghalaya is the latest one to join the club in a bid to curb the plastic menace by building roads out of it.

It takes up to 1,000 years for an item made of plastic to decompose itself. And in the same league, India is generating as much as 56 lakh tonnes of plastic waste annually. But a professor of Chemistry from Madurai’s Thiagarajar College of Engineering came up with an idea that can control this disaster and use them for a better India. Rajagopalan Vasudevan found that one can finely shred plastic and use them to build roads. And the same technology was incorporated by Nongkynjang village Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills. The local administration gathered all the plastic waste from the village and imported some amount from Shillong. This is the first time that such a technology was implemented by a district administration in North East.

Here are the pictures of the construct of roads in Nongkynjang village Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills

Finely Shredded Plastic. 

Finely Shredded Plastic (Photo Credits: Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin/ Facebook)

The construction of roads at this village in Shillong begins. 

 

Construction of roads (Photo Credits: Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin/ Facebook)

It continues! 

Waste Plastic to use Construction of Roads (Photo Credits: Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin/ Facebook)

And the roads at Nongkynjang village Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills looks beautiful. 

Nongkynjang village Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills (Photo Credits: Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin/ Facebook)

Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills 

Meghalaya Village Uses Plastic to Construct Roads (Photo Credits: Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin/ Facebook)

The Deputy Commissioner Nongstoin Arunkumar Kembhavi in his Facebook post said that “We have already consumed 47 kilos of plastic waste like polythene carry bags, plastic cups, chips packets, foam packaging etc for one kilometre. Not just waste plastic from Nongstoin we are importing plastic from Shilllong as well which could have otherwise littered our roads. If all roads in Meghalaya are built using this technology, we can get rid of the plastic menace which is a necessary evil in modern world and also achieve the objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission.”

The project was undertaken in collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Projects (Megha-LAMP) which has also proved to be very cost effective. The process of road construction using waste plastic has already been initiated in Nonglwai I and II villages. The work is expected to be completed by the end of April. Till now, seven states have used excellently shredded plastic waste to build roads. The roads built from the discarded plastic water bottles and polythene bags will not only be water resistant but also stronger, smoother and durable.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2018 01:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).