YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS : Can plastic roads save the world?

Let’s start with some of the latest news on the subject-matter of vehicular travel and transport roads... Or, more specifically: ‘plastic roads!’

“Recycling: Road makers turn to recycled plastic for tougher (road) surfaces,” cooed the headline to the print edition of Science and Technology of September 13, 2018...

“30 tonnes of seized plastics to end up as roads,” roared another headline to a news report by Komal Gautham published in the Chennai-based The Times of India on January 6, 2019...

...And, the latest in the series: “South Africa to build the first plastic road in Africa,” crowed the headline to a report by Judy Bokao updated in the Construction Review Online on March 14, 2019.

Oh... there is more on that in the public domain in recent years which can readily be accessed via the ubiquitous Internet.

Generally speaking, plastic roads are made entirely of plastic, or of composites of plastic with other materials. In this regard, they are different from standard roads in that the latter are made from asphalt concrete, which consists of mineral aggregates and asphalt. [/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_roads>].

Apparently, the general idea behind the growing shift from using asphalt concrete to using plastics on constructing roads in founded in environmental protection every which way.

Briefly put, ‘environmental protection’ is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments, with the overriding objective of conserving Mother Nature, natural resources and the natural environment.

The term generally refers to any activity that’s indulged in with a view to maintaining or restoring the quality of the environment. This is usually accomplished through preventing the emission of pollutants, or reducing the presence of polluting substances in our environment.

This can also be achieved by changing human consumption patterns, production techniques and characteristics of goods and services; as well as disposing or ‘treating’ residuals in separate environmental protection facilities; preventing degradation of the landscape and ecosystems, and recycling...

This last one – recycling – is being used in this day and age of plastic roads.

‘Recycling’ is, of course, the action or process of converting waste into ‘new,’ reusable materials or objects. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction that is aimed at environmental sustainability by substituting raw material inputs into, and redirecting waste outputs out of, the economic system.

Hence road construction using recycled plastics. These are synthetic materials made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC (polymerizing vinyl chloride), nylon, etc., that can be moulded into shape while soft, and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form.

So, to protect the Environment, the Tamil Nadu government banned the use of some plastic products, starting from January 1, 2019. [See ‘Tamil Nadu bans use of plastics;’ January 10, 2019: /indianprinterpublisher.com/>].

In that regard, seized plastics are recycled in road construction projects using “a technique conceptualised by the Madurai-based Professor Rajagopalan Vasudevan...” [/indianprinterpublisher.com/>].

Oh, I don’t know... But, Africa is also scrambling aboard the Plastic Roads Bandwagon – what with the Kouga Municipality in the Eastern Cape of South Africa preparing to “construct the first plastic road in Africa, with the aim of solving waste plastic epidemic andpoor quality roads...” [articles/341560/uk-company-piloting-plastic-waste-to-build-roads-in-sa>]. Cheers,