Plastic mix in road construction
A technology raring to be harnessed
Why such an innovation as blending plastic waste with bitumen to lay roads hasn't been brought up to the public so far? It is a question that naturally pops up given the multifaceted benefits derivable from it vis-a-vis the bitumen topped layers of soft brick fragments and brick slabs -- the conventional road construction technology. We felicitate Bangladesh Transport Foundation(BTF)and Practical Action, an international NGO, for their efforts in bringing to light the findings of the BUET laboratory tests and a study conducted by a team of planners, engineers and development administrators of BTF. The BUET, of course, has a big share of the credit.
Through trials of the method in three road building projects, Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has reached the conclusion that the plastic waste binding of the bitumen provides cost-effective and durable roads instead of the fragile bitumen plus brick soled ones we have been stuck with. The trials show that road so built had 84 percent, 57 percent and 15 percent less cracks, depressions and raveling, respectively, than conventionally constructed roads.
If we have such roads, in maintenance costs alone, the country can save Tk1507.60crore a year. The technology seems ideally suited in Bangladesh climate with her dense traffic load. Besides, the huge amount of plastic wastes that we generate can be recycled for road building purposes thereby reducing the amount of hazardous non-biodegradable materials in the environment. The technology has been successfully utilised in Canada, Brazil and the Indian cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai.
This is no doubt a commendable innovation. But the issue here is that precious improvisations have often gone down the drain because of vested interest groups who see benefits in continuing with conventional technologies that proved money spinning for them. Particularly in such a massive undertaking as road building that look-out may get the better of durability considerations. The emphasis, therefore, automatically falls on political will of the elected government to make the best use of the method invented by our scientists.
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