Page 59 - Plastics News April 2023

IN THE NEWS

More stretches in Kolkata to undergo 'plastic'

Kolkata Municipal Corporation es of two roads. We have followed to waterlogging with the same tech-
(KMC) is set to use recycled plastic the dry process methodology in relay- nology," said Partha Sarathi Chowd-
to pave more new roads and repair ing or paving these stretches. hury, a resident of Netaji Subhas Road
existing ones after successful imple- Encouraged by the initial success, we in Behala.
mentation of the first pilot project have decided to manufacture bitumi- Similar has been the reaction of mo-
at waterlogging-prone Behala's Ne- nous asphalt at our Palmerbazar and torists travelling along Remount
taji Subhas Road (Bakshibagan) and a Goragacha plants by using discarded Road-DH Road, one of the busiest
stretch of Remount Road, where the plastic," said a KMC roads department thoroughfares in south Kolkata, which
road condition seems to remain stable official. is currently more prone to wear and
after eight months of wear and tear "It's been a year that the road has tear due to the ongoing Metro con-
and sporadic rain. been re-laid with new technology and struction project.
Last week, TOI visited both the surprisingly, there has been very little "A major part of the thoroughfare has
stretches to check if the new road wear and tear of the surface even as already crumbled and even a slight
composition had actually worked. this area was under water on multiple rain leaves the area full of puddles.
Not only were the road surface in occasions during monsoon last year," But even then, the portion of the
fine shape, the wear and tear was less said Kajal Mondal, a homemaker and road that has been relaid with plastic
when compared to other roads, in- resident of Bakshibagan. feels as new with very little damage,"
dicating that plastic had added to the Those living in the neighbourhood said Santanu Banerjee, who regularly
blacktop's durability. have also approached local council- drives along the stretch.
According to a KMC roads depart- lor Avijit Mukherjee, who is also the The decision to mix plastic granules
ment official, the civic body had paved MMIC overseeing the KMC roads with bitumen during the hot-mix pro-
stretches of Bakshibagan and Re- department, with positsive feedback duction was taken after consulting
mount Road with 600-micron plastic. and have sought similar roads in their experts. This technology is already
With the pilot project now a success, areas as well. "Our neighbourhood is in use elsewhere in the world. The
the civic brass wants to pave or relay waterlogging-prone and after every binding property of plastic mixed with
more roads with the same ingredi- monsoon, the road surface wears off. bitumen is higher and is therefore ex-
ents. The same has happened again but the pected to prevent rutting, an official
"We have successfully experimented stretch where the new technology sai
with discarded plastic as one of the was applied remains the same. We
major ingredients for relaying stretch- have appealed to relay all roads prone

BMC to dig out plan to recycle seized plastic

he BMC’s idea of recycling seized a policy decision on disposal/recy- “We were in discussion with a few
Tplastic as benches, dustbins and cling. However, civic action slowed NGOs but the idea didn’t move fur-
school stationery is still in a limbo and down after the government allowed ther. We haven’t shut our options yet
4,148 kg of plastic is lying unused in use, storage, trade, distribution, and and will soon work on it,” said a sen-
BMC warehouses for the past few transportation of all single-use dispos- ior civic official.
months. able items. The BMC has taken legal action
After the civic body revived its drive BMC invites tender against 22 violators and collected a
against banned plastic on July 1, ward- The civic body has now revived dis- fine of Rs45.25 lakh till February this
wise teams of the license department cussion with a few NGOs willing to year. The shopkeepers using banned
visited markets, shops and establish- recycle this plastic material and has plastic are fined between Rs5,000 and
ments to seize banned plastic. It was also decided to invite a tender. Rs25,000 per violation.
then dumped in warehouses awaiting

PLASTICS NEWS 59
April 2023