Before the ban on sale and use of plastic products reached the conceptual stage, there was a belief that “innovation” could see the common waste being transformed to deal with the city’s ill — from repairing bad roads to even producing fuel.
Back in 2002, Rasool Khan and his brother Ahmed Khan were called to help the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) lay roads.
“In the subsequent decade, we supplied over 10,000 tonnes of plastic to pave 3,000 km of roads,” Mr. Rasool Khan said. Their company —K.K. Plastic Waste Management Private Ltd. — is among the few to hold a patent for this technology.
Lalbagh Road, Richmond Road, and roads inside Bangalore University were paved using plastic. The project — which Mr. Rasool Khan says saw the lifespan of roads double to more than six years while costing just Rs. 25,000 additionally per km — was stopped in 2013.
“This kind of reuse has become a Union government scheme since November. However, Bengaluru, which had initiated it, has opted for a ban instead of policy support for recycling,” he said.
The ban, if enforced, he says will see the plastic entering their collection centres reduce by more than half. Currently, they get around 3 tonnes of plastic, which is primarily converted into material needed for asphalting roads.
From waste to oil
The plastic waste-to-oil concept too seems to be stuck in the paperwork. Prasanna Datar, who sells machines that convert plastic into oil through his Aditya Group, says there has not been any sale in the past three years in the State. “Each machine costs Rs. 45 lakh, and clearly there is no interest from entrepreneurs here. We have sold the machines to those in other States. In the West, there is a government agency to sell waste plastic. But here, either you have to collect it from areas under a BBMP contract, or buy it from contractors who have formed a mafia themselves,” he said.
A city-based company had shown interest in setting up a 10-tonne processing plant at Mandur – an interest that soon faded away. The plastic was to be converted into crude oil and petroleum products to fuel machines.
BBMP officials say the proposals have been stuck in the approval stage, while lack of funds has seen roads with plastic come to a screeching halt. Plastic suppliers had been paid Rs. 28 per square metre of road – an amount BBMP can no longer afford.
Article source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/plastic-ban-okay-but-policy-on-recycling-could-do-more/article8362765.ece.