Plastic has slowly become an integral part of all human requirements. Plastic bags, packaging material, bottles, cups, and various other items have slowly replaced everything made of other materials due to the advantages of plastic. Plastic is durable, easy to produce, lightweight, unbreakable, odourless, and chemically resistant. Plastic roads, first developed by Rajagopalan Vasudevan in 2001, consist of an asphalt mix with plastic waste incorporated into the asphalt mixture. The implementation of plastics in road building also opens a new option for recycling post-consumer plastics. Australia, Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries have used technology that can incorporate plastic waste into an asphalt mix.
Plastic roads are made entirely of plastic or composites of plastic with other materials. They are different from standard roads since standard roads are made from asphalt concrete, which consists of mineral aggregates and asphalt. These roads are made from recycled plastics, and the first step in constructing them is to collect and manage the plastic material. The plastics involved in building these roads consist mainly of common post-consumer products such as product packaging. Some of the most common plastics used in this packaging are polyethene terephthalate, polypropylene, and high and low-density polyethene. These materials are first sorted from plastic waste. After sorting, the material is cleaned, dried, and shredded. The shredded plastic is mixed and melted at around 170°C. Hot bitumen is then added and mixed with the melted plastic. After mixing the mixture is laid as one would with regular asphalt concrete.
The original idea for the PlasticRoad was invented by Simon Jorritsma and Anne Koudstaal. In 2015, the PlasticRoad concept was presented to the world to find partners to bring the idea to reality. The PlasticRoad has a lot of advantages compared to normal roads, including hollow space for the storage of excessive rainwater, lightweight, and sustainability benefits
This is one of the main ways in which plastic can be recycled, and this idea should be implemented everywhere in the world to save our future.
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