Relooking At Plastic Waste As A Resource

Plastic has been much demonised by popular media as one of the key pollutants in the world. However, there is a flip side to it. With plastic being used across industries, it is unfair to paint the material as all black or all white.

Recognising this fact, Padmashree Rajagopalan Vasudevan spoke at BW Businessworld's BW Recycling Awards and Conclave Summit 2022. He began by talking about the processes of using plastic waste in many ways, through a presentation which was on throughout his speech regarding “Plastic – God’s gift – Better to plan, than ban.” He feels that man has to first recycle his mind before recycling anything else. According to him and his research, nature is a form of God and nature has been disturbed by man throughout the world.

“Plastic saves energy, carbon lives, fuel, water, and food. There is nothing wrong with plastic as it a wonderful material that provides many things and helps in day-to-day living. For example, plastic is used as cups, carry bags, parcel covers, milk pouches, films, foam, chocolate & biscuit covers, water bottles and the list can go on and on. God fixes a time and date for everything, it is just that man should understand and use it properly,” he stated.

Moving on, he described the ways man has misused plastic and also created marine debris, water canal clogging, municipal solid waste etc. He also spoke about how man has made plastic hazardous, unhygienic, making it affect water flow, sore eyes and problems to animals. Mostly marine debris are plastic littered in land only. He proves that plastic waste can be fully used for road making and for preparing structural materials (environment friendly). He went on to say that, “The solution to pollution is the reuse of waste plastics. A Plastic Tar road has the following salient features – No potholes, rutting and raveling formed, withstands heavy load, decreased Bitumen consumption, reduced construction cost, value addition to waste plastics, no maintenance cost for more than 7 years, cost is less, no effect or UV radiation and is good at low temperatures and the rainy season as well.”

When it comes to application of Plastone Blocks he says that the products produced are –

1. Water canal linings

2. Bricks for shock resistant walls

3. Portable speed breakers

4. Table tops

5. Plastone toilets

6. Surface modified decorative blocks (rubber, polymer) and the list can go on.

“Plastic helps fight against Covid through materials like gloves, PPE kits, disposal of dead bodies, etc. To care for the future – develop better habits, own your ownership, non-toxic additives to be used, only eco-friendly products should be manufactured and scientific disposal of waste is very important,” he says.

On a conclusive note we can say that while he summed up his address, he in a very subtle and detailed manner, explained the uses of plastic. According to him plastic is a blessing from God but man’s creation made it plastic waste. Man’s exploitation of nature affects not only the environment but also creates problems which we can’t escape from. We need to be more aware and careful to make sure that we can actually benefit from plastic.