[Image]A Post-graduate student from Bangalore, India has come up with simple and powerful idea to put waste plastic to good and durable use.

For example lets take the example of the city where this student resides. Roughly Bangalore generates 50 tonne of plastic waste.

Study conducted by A N Ashwin, a student of R V Engineering College, titled 'Effects of Waste Plastic Utilisation on the Performance of Semi-Dense Bituminous Concrete Mixes', provides a new hope how we dispose the waste plastic.

By his study he came to know that, when plastic is used in semi-dense materials for laying roads, the road's durability increases. It doesn't get damaged easily and stops seepage of water.

"Recycled plastic is already being used in making of roads and is used to mix with the aggregates. But it is not used in semi-dense bituminous concrete mixes. By recycling the waste, the goal of plastic waste management is also achieved," said Ashwin.

"The waste plastic is used in wet process where it is mixed with bitumen, but no one has tried it yet with dry process, which we are doing for the first time. Low-density waste plastic in its fine shredded form will be added (at high temperature) to the heated aggregates, thus forming a thin coating on them.

Result in providing better performance of semi-dense bituminous concrete mixes by performing two different functions. One improves the adhesive property of aggregates with binders and also it improves anti-stripping property of aggregates," he added.

- Mid-Day Media Inputs