In a first for Salt Lake, the roads around CA Market are getting built partially with plastic. This is a new technology that promises longevity and is being built using plastic chips from recycled waste collected in the ward over the past year.

“On World Environment Day last year, we purchased a plastic crusher machine. This was from the Rs 4,74,000 received from Sujit Bose’s MLA fund. From my councillor fund, we used another Rs 1,04,000 for installation costs. We cleared out space next to the vat opposite CA Market and set up the machine there,” said local councilor and mayor-in-council Rajesh Chirimar.

But then came the question of what to do with this crushed plastic, that the machine expels in the form of small chips. “I had heard of plastic roads but did not know the technology. Municipal commissioner Sujay Sarkar connected us to KMDA authorities who have built such roads before and shared the ratio of plastic to be used in the bitumen mix while building roads,” said Chirimar.

The contractor Subir Roy was optimistic about plastic. “Bitumen’s worst enemy is water. When it rains or floods, water seeps through the gaps in bitumen layers and damages the road. But plastic seals these gaps so the roads should be protected,” says the contractor who has been building roads in Salt Lake since the mid-1990s.

The only catch is that plastic roads need slightly more time to settle after building. “Vehicles should be off bitumen roads for the first 24 hours but residents often barge in with their cars sooner than that. Plastic roads would need 30 hours to settle,” Roy said.

Anita Mondal, mayor-in-council in charge of roads, came to see the plastic roads being built on Wednesday. “This is a pilot project and if it is successful we can replicate it across the township. Previously, we had a clause with contractors such that they would repair roads free of cost if they got damaged within three years of building. We have extended it to five years now but we expect plastic roads to last longer,” she said.

New Town, incidentally, had used the technology for three of its roads.

Chirimar said his ward had received Rs 1.7 crore earlier this year for road repairs. Out of this, plastic is being used to build about 13,700sq m area, mainly around CA Market. “If we were to buy plastic for this process, it would have cost more than the bitumen, but we are using plastic generated from the waste produced within the ward,” he said. “This also reduces labour hours to handle the extra plastic and saves in transport cost of sending the same to the Dhapa landfill.”

Recycled plastic

The plastic crusher machine opposite CA Market can process hard plastics like cola and shampoo bottles as well as food boxes that restaurants send home. Polyethylene gets entangled in the blades so is avoided. “The machine has the capacity to crush 500kg of plastic a day but we get only 500kg a week,” said Chirimar.

The ward, that comprises BA, CA, CB, DA, DB, EA, and a part of Duttabad, produces about 2,000kg of waste a day, out of which some 20 per cent is plastic. “But we are not getting all this plastic as only 30 to 40 per cent residents are segregating their waste,” he rued.

In 2019, the Corporation distributed blue and green buckets for households to segregate their garbage into kitchen waste and non-biodegradable waste including plastic. “The drive slowed down due to the pandemic but from next week we shall be strict about it,” Chirimar promised. “We shall send lady Nirmal Sathi sanitation workers along with the garbage collector to explain segregation door-to-door, and if residents still do not comply, we may refuse to accept their trash for a day or two."