A city-based environmental scientist has proposed a technique that can kill two birds with one stone: It will put an end to the menace of non-biodegradable plastic wastes and discarded tyres which host dengue- and malaria-causing mosquitoes; and it will do so by recycling the plastic and tyres by breaking them into smaller molecules transforming them into usable fuel for industrial boilers and furnaces besides in generating electricity.
Dr Rinku Verma, environmental scientist at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS)-Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) has proposed setting up plastic and discarded tyres recycling units which uses a technique called pyrolysis.
Pyrolysis is a chemical reaction which involves molecular breakdown of larger plastic molecules into much smaller ones in the presence of heat ranging between 4500 Celsius and 6000 Celsius. But it has to be done in the absence of oxygen to prevent burning that is extremely harmful for health and environment.