The government has constituted a committee to ensure that shredded plastic is used in the desired proportion in laying roads under the Public Works Department (PWD) and local self-government institutions.
The committee headed by the executive vice chairperson of the Haritha Keralam Mission, will also continuously evaluate the use of shredded plastic in laying roads. The comittee was constituted on May 10.
The committee members include directors of the Urban and Panchayat Departments; Chief Engineers (Roads), PWD, and Department of Local Self-Government; Executive Director, Kerala Suchitwa Mission; and Managing Director, Clean Kerala Company Limited.
The decision to use shredded plastic in road-topping works has been taken up over the past three years. According to the present prescription, shredded plastic should make up 6 to 8% of the material used for black topping roads.
Performance
A senior Public Works Department engineer said mixing shredded plastic with bitumen would add to the longevity of the road and cut cost by reducing the quantum of bitumen used in black topping.
The performance of roads laid using shredded plastic showed less progressive unevenness.
Sources in Clean Kerala Company said 2016-17 witnessed production of 23.82 tonnes of shredded plastic, of which 5.11 tonnes was sold to the Public Works Department and the rest to the local bodies to be deployed in road building.
The volume of shredded plastic production had gone up substantially since then.
During 2018-19, 439.18 tonnes of shredded plastic was available, of which 136.09 tonnes was sold to the PWD and 143.86 tonnes to the local bodies.
Total production over the past three years was 638 tonnes.
Between 2016-17 and 2018-19, the department laid 193.6 km of roads using shredded plastic while the local bodies laid more than 700 km using shredded plastic.
There are 117 units producing shredded plastic across Kerala under various local bodies.
The Kochi Corporation has been one of the earliest local bodies engaged in shredding plastic.
The Perumbavoor municipality has supplied 1,835 kg of shredded plastic to the PWD and a similar quantity to the local self-government institutions.