The Plastic Man of India

Superheroes, what pops up in your mind? wait let me guess .... Superman, Spiderman , Batman , Iron man , Shaktimaan and many more . What is the meaning of a Superhero?

Yeah yeah ! the one who save the world ,who help people, help government for solving major civil problems and many more . He is the ideal for many peoples . We all want to become like him . But the main thing of heroes are , they inspire us in all possible ways. We all want to follow their footsteps. Here is the story of the 'Man 'who brought some major dignified positive changes in environment by his research and hard work . The story of Plastic Man of India .

Look around yourself ..now yes now and ask yourself how many plastic things you got in your room. From plastic bags , chocolate wrappers, plastic bottles, chips bags...list is quite big ,this is the story of every house in our country . Imagine how much plastic a country must be producing per day /month/year . Figures are alarming .

Now the plastics we used have very dangerous effects on our planet. We know how much it contribute to pollution . The used plastics, people many times throw open out to the environment, which is just laying on the ground for days as it is not decomposable . This has lead to the suffering of poor animals because they can't differentiate plastic is their food or not . And they end up eating it.

plastics has clogged many drains resulting into flooding.

it covers ground part and in rainy season water many a times don't infiltrate into the ground , which also adds up issue of ground water table.

If I keep on writing impact of plastics , this blog will not end and I haven't come to my main story yet ...so lets go

while everyone was talking about plastics and its impact on environment a 'Man '

finds out what to be done next

Rajagopalan Vasudeven , professor of Thiagarajar College of engineering .

He took a initiative to save our nature and its climate by eliminating plastic in maximum possible ways . But how ? that was a major question . As it can't be burnt because it will produce toxic gases. The task was tough but his intelligence , hard work , focus ,dedication and love for environment broke all the barriers and found the best possible ecofriendly method of using waste plastic as raw material/side aggregate in the construction of roads .Road made of plastics ..I mean how cool is that.

ROAD OF PLASTIC

How did he invented ?and what is the process of making it ? curiosity of my mind was at peak and then I did some research...

METHOD

1-Shredding of plastics(shredding machines).

2-Heating of aggregates (165 degree)

3-The heated aggregates are poured into mixing chambers .

4- Bitumen is heated (160 degree) good binding is done here .

5- Shredded plastic is added to aggregate . Mixing is done so plastic gets uniformly coated around aggregate . It gives it oily look.

6-Plastic waste coated aggregate is mixed with bitumen

and is used for road construction.

7- road laying temp is 110-120 degree.

8-Roller capacity is 8 tonnes.

Road constructed by this method has been executed by R.V. Sir .

Road from Delhi to Meerut is already there ,used by thousands of vehicles everyday .

In 2006, Vasudeven sir gave free patent to our government to use his technology . The government gave orders to road developers to follow his methods in road construction . Today, in India till 2019= 21000 miles of roads are constructed using plastic waste .

33,700 km of plastic roadways ,every 1 km road uses 1 million plastic bags .

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF PLASTIC ROADS ON ENVIRONMENT

• Kilos of stone,50 gm of bitumen , 1/10th part of plastic waste is used . It reduces the amount of bitumen used and also the cost .

• plastic increases aggregate impact values .

• improves quality of flexible pavements .

• Wear and tear of roads are decreased .

• Better resistance to rainwater.

• Reduce road fatigue.

• increase strength of roads .

• Adding plastics to roads appears to slow their deterioration and minimize potholes.

WORLD WIDE RECOGNITION

-BBC has gave a thumps up to R.V sir methods and also appreciated it .

-chemical firm Dow has been implementing projects using polyethylene rich recycled plastics in US and Asia pacific .

-The first in UK was built in Scotland in 2019 by the plastic road builder MacRebur .Laid plastic roads from Slovakia to south Africa .

-Macrebur says -incorporating plastic improves roads flexibility and help them cope with expansion and contraction due to temp changes ,leading to fewer potholes.

Ecofriendly bicycle pathway in Dutch city of Zwolle

EMPLOYMENT IN INDIA FOR RAGPICKERS IN INDIA

This method gave so many rag pickers employment. People can buy their own bread and butter. At time like this ,it adds additional job opportunities .

All thanks to Rajagopalan Vasudeven Sir for working so hard to make our planet earth a better place to live .

All we can do to help is implementing these methods and making it a prime goal to construct in ecofriendly way .

Being a engineer your first goal should be safety of our environment also.

That's what a true engineer will do , build a green , ecofriendly Environment.

LETS SAVE OUR PLANET