The fight against single-use plastics: Why only a ‘waste to wealth’ approach is sustainable

Since sustainable consumption and production aim at ‘doing more and better with less’, net welfare gains from economic activities can increase by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole life cycle, while increasing quality of life. There also needs to be significant focus on supply chain, involving everyone from producer to end user. This includes educating consumers on sustainable consumption.

Plastic is a versatile material that can be a valuable asset to green recycling programme. It is versatile, recyclable and reusable. Plastics are often recycled to make items such as clothes, carpet, containers, bottles, plastic lumber, films, grocery bags, moulding materials, and lawn and garden products, and for bitumen top of roads, to name a few. And for every tonne of plastic that’s recycled, reports estimate that seven yards of landfill space is saved. By recycling, one can also help conserve the additional 80 percent of energy that’s typically used when making new plastic bottles, containers and other items instead of recycling. It’s easy to see why plastic recycling is so important. Baled plastics, specifically plastic bottles, have a high scrap value per tonne. In fact, the only other recyclable product that’s more lucrative is aluminum cans. Moreover, sorting and recycling create lots of local employment.

The utilisation of refuse in road construction would help cities get rid of plastic waste. “Till 2014-15, 4,535 km of rural roads were made using new technologies like cold-mix and materials which have been developed and patented by Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), waste plastic and fly ash. More jute and coir are being used to make rural roads economical and eco-friendly,” says DG, NRRDA. Presently 15 percent of total rural roads use these new technologies and materials. More than 4,500 km of roads using these technologies were constructed in Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim and West Bengal. Recently IRC released the Rural Road Specification Code, 2014, detailing the use of locally available materials such as jute, coir and waste such as fly ash, plastic rubbish, paper mill sludge and construction and demolition debris in laying rural roads.

A town alone generates around 80 tonnes of plastic waste per day and it can be used for construction of roads. Moreover, the use of plastic improves the durability of roads and also saves on cost, and has better resistance to rain. Dr R Vasudevan, who had developed this process a decade back and now helping MPRRDA in road construction, said, at present, Tamil Nadu is leading in the use of plastic waste in road construction where around 5,000 km of roads have been constructed. States such as Maharashtra, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh are adopting this technology. He said the use of plastic waste in road construction will help combat pollution, improve road condition and also save foreign exchange used to import bitumen. Government agencies can also earn carbon credits. "We reduce bitumen by around 10 per cent and add that much of plastic waste at the time of mixing," Vasudevan said, adding that plastic waste is first collected, shredded and then mixed. This technology can be effectively used to provide sustainable income. Thus, it is not just plastic being used, but according to experts, use of aggregates and bitumen in such large quantities can do irreparable damage to the environment as they are non-renewable minerals.

Sustainable city life is one of the Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An integrated approach is crucial for progress across the multiple goals. The climate change and environmental concerns should be addressed on the basis of ‘waste to wealth’ philosophy. This will create job opportunities, income sustainability and infrastructure, and reduce inequity.