ISRO on October 6 shared pictures showing how plastic is shredded and mixed to make roads at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.
The Indian space agency said that the Department of Space (DoS) is actively contributing to the Swachhata Campaign by implementing best practices. “Plastic waste is being sustainably utilised for the resurfacing of roads at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota, the Spaceport of India,” ISRO posted.
Under the Union Government’s ‘Waste to Wealth’ mission and its mission of constructing environmentally sustainable national highways, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is also testing the use of steel slag, a by-product of steel making, in road construction. Steel sag comes after fly ash, waste plastic and phosphor-gypsum to be used for building national highways.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in March, this initiative will help address the challenge of shortage of material used in development of the national highways, and could replace natural aggregates such as sand, gravel, or crushed stone with waste materials.
Studies have established that roads built using plastic waste are durable, sustainable and increase the life of the bitumen. Construction of one kilometre of four-lane highway helps in disposal of approximately seven tonnes of plastic waste, the Ministry said.
