The Chronicles of Plastic Waste

A Web Series Named “KOTA FACTORY” of TVF (The Viral Fever) had a dialogue “21 din mein koi bhi aadat lag jaati hai, koi bhi aadat chhut jaati hai (It takes 21 days to make or break a habit)”, But it depends on a individual whether they want to do it or not, as its just a common fact but a thing which is not do-able by everyone. 

How this thing is connected to Plastic Waste? In India, pollution is now a problem that is spread by many sources but if we take particularly the case of Plastic Waste then it’s actually a product of our habit. After the Swachhta Abhiyan commencement in India, things started to change a bit but as an individual, people always want an ease in doing anything. And if they find ease in disposing the plastic improperly they do the same. Habit is the main reason behind Plastic Waste. Plastic is a fossil fuel as it’s a petroleum product which takes millions of years to decompose into land that result into Land and Soil Pollution. According to an article in Quartz India of August 2019, India is the 15th biggest Plastic polluter ranging up to 26,000 tonnes every day. It harms the marine and wildlife at a high extent. It harms even the urban areas. To vanish it people burn the plastic which releases harmful gases that spreads air pollution. Any Solution to this problem will take time to take place as it depends a lot on the mindset. We can address some of solutions that can help make India free from Plastic Waste gradually.

1). Making Boycott of Plastic a habit

As I said above that Plastic is our habit now, from packaging to daily use equipments we are surrounded by plastic. To stop the plastic menace we can start from stopping the use of single use plastic bags and dispose the plastic waste in a correct manner. For this we need to start from ourselves by not asking for plastic bags and carry cloth bags with us to shop at nearby shopping points. Buy three recycle bins for dumping dry waste, wet waste and plastic waste. If you do it like this, it becomes easy for the Plastic recycling companies to recycle the whole plastic waste. So apart from boycotting plastic we can also help Municipalities by dumping plastic waste differently to reduce the litters in nearby locations and recycle the plastic again and again to stop or reduce the new plastic production. 

2). Replacing Plastics with Biodegradables 

Many researches are running on the cost effective biodegradable materials to replace plastic. Government started a movement to ban the single use plastic in November 2019. The reason behind doing so is the excessive use of single use plastics in carry bags manufacturing. Those plastic bags having a thickness less than 51 microns are titled as Single use plastics. Biodegradables include raw materials that degrade in a period of 3 to 6 months. The raw materials are mainly agricultural products i.e. cotton, jute, vegetable waste and oil, natural starch etc. In Bangladesh, a company named Sonali Bags are manufacturing biodegradable bags that are made from Jute Cellulose. In India, a company named Envigreen is manufacturing biodegradable bags with the vegetable waste and natural starch that make it a 100% substitute of the plastic bags. If they are disposed then it will do no harm to animals and climate.

3). Convert Several Plastics Compounds into One

Let’s look at various plastic compounds and their uses:-

a). Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) : Mineral Water Bottles, Cold-drink Bottles etc.

b). High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) : Medicine Bottles, Shampoo Bottles, Cooking Oil Containers etc.

c). Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) : Plastic Bags used for Food Packaging and Garbage Collection, Plastic Wrappings etc.

d). Polypropylene (PP) : For Containment of Hot Food, Car Parts etc.

e). Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) : Pipes, Detergent bottles, Doors etc. 

f). Polystyrene (PS) : Disposable Cups and Bowls, Bike Helmets etc. .

All the above plastic categories are prevalent on what we need to think on. There are three things we need to think first is the proper disposal, second is the recyclability of plastic category and third is the health issue pertaining to every category. From the above categories PET and HDPE are picked for the recycling purpose as there recycling rate is more. Yet all the plastic compounds are having their own problems pertaining to health which should not be ignored. 

Let’s think of some solutions that are done or can be done in near future through advancement in technologies.

1). Research on the recycling of the plastic categories apart from PET and HDPE, that can help reduce the current new production of plastic and reduce plastic waste that can have harmful effects on the environment as well as all living beings.

2). Research on the conversion of one plastic compound to another to increase the usability of them. For e.g. Conversion of LDPE to HDPE through any process can be helpful for increasing the usability of it. This should be tested for every plastic compound to increase its recycle rate and usability as well.

If any of the above process becomes successful then it will open doors for new business opportunities. What efforts it will take? Research and Engineering will be the vital part to do so. But it starts from industries and residences to sort the waste pertaining to plastic differently which can result into easy and fast recycling of the same. And it should be further collected differently to transport to the processing unit. The role at the initial level is to convince people to do so and then comes the supply chain & logistics to accomplish the plastic collection before the processing of the same.

4). Plastic to Fuel Conversion

 

As we all know that plastic is a petroleum product, there is a process that can convert certain categories of plastics into petroleum fuel. The name of this process is Thermo catalytic Depolymerisation or Pyrolysis. In this process the long chains containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen polymers get converted to small chains of petroleum hydrocarbons when heated at temperatures ranging up to 250°C.

The Process is as follows :-

1). The waste plastic (Mainly the one which is found in landfill waste i.e. Plastic bags, Plastic bottles etc.) is feeded into the machine to convert them into small pieces before the cleaning process.

2). It is then mixed with water and then heated at a temperature of 250°C for 10-15 minutes.

3). The water boils off and the reaction results into a Liquid Fuel and solid minerals.

4). The solid minerals are then removed and the liquid hydrocarbon fuel is further heated to break the long chain into small chain.

5). And after this, the fuel’s cleaning process is done that results into 70-75% (depending on the type of plastic) clean petroleum fuel out of Plastic waste feedstock which is very good.

This process not only gives the cleaner petroleum fuel but has potential to give many other by-products also in the form of gas that can be used for heating purpose in the same process or can be sold off. There are many articles written on this process in the public domain. For the collection of plastic waste (input feedstock), vehicles can be allotted to several localities by spreading awareness in people about dumping the plastic waste differently apart from there dry and wet waste.

5). Plastic Usage for the Construction

This technology was build in India by Mr. Rajagopalan Vasudevan, who first time presented this idea to  Tamilnadu’s CM Jayalalitha in 2004, who after listening to him immediately commissioned the work of 1000 kms of plastic based roads. Mr. Vasudevan sold his patent to Indian Government free of cost. He explained in an interview that “For every kilograms of stone, 50 grams of bitumen and 1/10th  plastic of this amount can change the efficiency of the roads. The addition of plastic can result into better flexibility of the road that helps it withstand periods of monsoon when strength in the road is a much needed thing. The plastic is having a good binding ability that binds the stones used in the road with each other, increasing the life of the road”.

Government spends a lot on the road construction every year because of the inability of the roads to withstand monsoon which creates lot of problems for them. Every work that government do have a cost and the construction work comes out as a recurring cost which they need to spend on for the sake of necessity (this problem can be because of the corrupt practices). This experiment is not just a cost effective step to b taken but also reduces the recurring construction costs.

“There is a solution to every problem but the only matter is to take initiative, come out with innovative solutions and making problem solving a habit.”