IOC builds 850-meter long road from single-use plastic in Faridabad

After Reliance Industries, state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has built a ro using single-use waste plastic as industry demonstrated recycling opportunities to keep plastic in use whose alternative in paper or metal have much higher energy and water footprint.

IOC laid an 850-meter long ro outside its R&D Centre in Faridab, near here, using "varying concentration (1%-3%) single-use waste plastic" alongside bitumen, a company statement said here. ro building, similar to 40-km stretch that built by Reliance at its Nagathone petrochemical plant in Maharashtra, used shredded single-use plastics or polyne bags used to carry daily use items. "As per lab tests, waste plastic ros have vants of higher strength, increased durability, lesser rainwater seep due to plastic in aggregates, better binding/bonding of mix and lesser stripping with fewer pot-holes," IOC said.

Recycling process

While PET bottles such as once used for sale of mineral water and soft drinks are completely recyclable, single-use plastic such as polyne bags possed an environmental challenge as y were mostly discarded. PET bottles land up in recycling centres as y fetch Rs 35 per kg in trash or waste market but single-use plastics have such ecomic value. If companies recycling single-use plastic can guarantee Rs 15 per kg, collection of single-use plastic too would become an ecomically viable model and help eliminate risk y w poss, industry officials said.

"People forget why plastic came into being. Plastic replaced paper and glass which was commonly used for purposes such as milk sale. Paper and glass have a much higher carbon footprint as y t just involve a high degree of energy us in ir manufacturing including cutting of trees, but also require a large water us when y are washed for reuse," an official said.

RE | UNSC Without India Affects United Nations' Credibility: EAM Jaishankar

In comparison, plastic, if sustainably collected and recycled, has much lower energy and water footprint, he said. 850-meter ro outside IOC's R&D Centre in Faridab used about 16 metric tonnes of waste plastic from single-use carry bags/packaging film waste. "Performance of this ro will be monitored by IOC R&D centre in association with CSIR-CRRI, and also fine-tune concentration of single-use plastic to be ded," IOC statement said.

IOC said a special gre of Bitumen, CRMB55, has been designed using 2wt% of waste (single use) plastic material. A first trucklo of product was flagged off by IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh from company's Panipat refinery. "Yet ar vel initiative introduced on day were polybags for bitumen filling produced from 100% single-use waste plastic, which solubilize fully in bitumen at time of ro paving. Bitumen is packed in two-layered specially designed poly-bags - one inner liner bag for filling and ar outer (raffia) bag with handle for ease of handling.

RE | Anil Shastri, Son Of Lal Bahur Shastri, Pays Tribute To Far

"At user's end, outer bag is removed and bitumen along with inner bags can be charged into bitumen hot mix plant. During bitumen melting process at ro construction site, inner bag melts and completely homogenizes with bitumen, which can be furr used in same way as conventionally packed bitumen," it said.

robust supply chain of waste

In order to establish robust supply chain of waste (single use) plastic material for implementing se initiatives on regular basis and to develop a sustainable business model, IOC also released a National Expression of Interest (EoI) on Wednesday for assessing market availability and willingness of parties/aggregators/ organizations to supply different s of waste plastics in commercial quantities on consistent basis.

Industry officials said in today's modern world, plastics have become an integral part of human life. plastics are in fact helped make human life easier. environmental problems arise t because plastics are b but in absence of effective disposal and recycling mechanism se materials find its way in landfills, y said.

RE | Sachin Tendulkar Eyes 'Swachh & Swasth India', Salutes Mahatma Gandhi

Besides building a ro from single-use plastic, Reliance collects PET bottles and recycles m into eco-friendly polyester fibres that can be used for making fabric from T-Shirts to Jeans. Recycling of PET Bottles is being carried out at Reliance's Barabanki, Hoshiarpur and Nagothane plants, a company official said. IOC said to mark 150th birth anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi and as part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, company flagged off 10 LPG delivery vans with banners to promote use of Repurposed Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) as biofuel.

"Biodiesel is an alternative fuel similar to conventional or fossil diesel. Biodiesel can be produced from vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and cooking oil. Used Cooking Oil (UCO) can be converted to Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME), which has fuel properties similar to crude based diesel and hence called Biodiesel. Thus UCO is a major source for production of biodiesel," statement said ding potential of Bio-diesel from UCO in India is estimated at 3.5 million tonnes per annum.

RE | Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy Review: Chiranjeevi Delivers Visual Spectacle