Page 18 - Plastics News August 2020

Today's PPE kits could be tomorrow's roads, fuel

With Covid pandemic requiring single-use PPE kits and oceans every year, the report states, adding that “more
other plastics, there has been a surge in plastic waste. than 90 per cent of the plastic waste that ends up in the
CSIR is looking at ways to reduce this waste and oceans” is carried by 10 rivers, including the Ganga.
establish safety protocol.
Plastics in the oceans have not only been known to choke
Mohana Basu marine life, but can also end up in our meals when we
Scientists from at least four Indian institutions are coming consume seafood. This is just one of the many threats
together to recycle the deluge of single-use plastics posed by plastic pollution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic and keep them from had announced last year that India will phase out single-
polluting our environment. The National Chemical use plastic, but the coronavirus crisis has caused a
worldwide surge in its use.
Laboratory (NCL) Pune, Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP)
Dehradun, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Full-body PPE kits, face shields, and several components
Institute (CMERI) Durgapur, and Indian Institute of in the RT-PCR testing kits are made of plastic and have to
Toxicology Research (IITR) Lucknow — all affiliated with be disposed of after single use for hygiene reasons.
the government's Council of Scientific & Industrial Standard protocol for managing biomedical waste dictates
Research (CSIR) — are pooling their expertise to convert that it should be incinerated. But this poses a significant
discarded personal protective equipment (PPE), and other burden for the environment in view of the sheer quantity
plastic waste of the pandemic into fuel or pellets that can of such plastic now requiring disposal. Rode noted that
be moulded into automobile parts or used for road PPE kits “are made of polymers which are not
construction. biodegradable”. “Because of the pandemic, the extent of
utilisation of these keeps increasing everyday,” he said.
“We have an in-principle approval from the CSIR. The work
on sanitising waste materials is already under way at the For example, he added, for every 1,000 Covid-19 tests that
IIP and the CMERI. The waste will be shredded and then are carried out, about 22 kg plastic waste is generated.
agglomerated into standardised plastic pellets,” said C.V. This includes PPE kits worn by healthcare professionals, as
well as testing swabs, some types of pipettes, and plastic
Rode, a scientist at CSIR-NCL, who is heading the
programme. These pellets will be sent to the NCL, which bottles used to store the swabs.
has the technology to test their structural and chemical India is currently carrying out over 6.6 lakh tests per day —
properties. Based on the properties of the pellets that would generate more than 14,500 kg of plastic waste
produced, the researchers will work with industry everyday from testing centres alone. “Currently, under
partners to decide their potential applications. The biomedical waste management guidelines, these types of
pellets, he added, can be moulded into automobile parts, wastes are usually incinerated, but a lot of the waste from
or plastic covers, or be used in road construction. smaller hospitals and testing centres end up in landfills,”
India has been employing plastic waste in road Rode said.
construction since 2016. The country has so far reportedly Challenges ahead
built over 1 lakh kilometres of roads where raw materials As part of the efforts to recycle plastics, the CSIR has
include plastic waste. “Most of the expertise and already set up several projects over the past few years.
infrastructure for recycling plastic wastes is already For example, a pilot plant that can convert plastic to fuel
available,” Rode said. “The only thing we have to set up is was inaugurated at IIP in Dehradun last year. The plant
a standard protocol for recycling Covid-19 wastes.” This uses a process called pyrolysis — which involves heating
includes thoroughly sanitising the waste to ensure the plastic in the absence of oxygen. For every kilogram of
safety of all those involved in handling it. “In two to three plastic, the plant can produce up to 700 ml of petrol or 850
months, we will be ready with the process,” Rode said mL diesel. Once the sanitisation process is standardised
The big plastic problem for Covid-19 waste, the team is also considering
developing mobile waste recycling facilities. “The waste
For a world already battling a massive plastic pollution
problem, the Covid plastic surge requires efficient can be shredded and agglomerated at the place of waste
solutions to ensure humans are not left reeling under generation itself and the pellets can be given to the
industries that can put these to use,” Rode added. One of
another crisis when the pandemic recedes. According to
estimates by the United Nations (UN), only nine per cent of the challenges in recycling Covid-19 wastes is that
all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. “About different manufacturers use different types of materials
12 per cent has been incinerated, while the rest — 79 per for PPE kits or swabs, and there is no way to segregate
these. The team will try to find the solution to those
cent — has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural
environment,” the UN said in an analysis of the plastic challenges over the next few months.
pollution problem. A staggering eight million tonnes of (Courtesy: The Print)
plastic, which is non-biodegradable, end up in the world's

August 2020 16 Plastics News