The Capital Development Authority of Pakistan (CDA) has invited everyone to learn from Pakistan’s first plastic road. They are offering assistance to anyone who wants to bring innovation like these.
Pakistan’s ‘first-ever plastic material road,’ inaugurated in Islamabad 2 months ago with the collaboration of 3 organizations. They used recycled plastic waste in making this.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) Islamabad tweeted:
“Let’s take a look at Pakistan’s First plastic material road. We are ready to assist anyone to use our knowledge. Together we can make Pakistan more beautiful and green”
Pakistan has the highest percentage of mismanaged plastic in South Asia. Around 55 billion plastic bags are produced in the country every year, most of them destined for garbage dumps, landfill sites, or municipal sewers. Around 30 million tons of solid waste is produced each year, out of which nine percent are plastics. The result is increasing plastic pollution in the country which has a negative effect on human health and marine life, upsetting food chains and causing air, water, and land to pollute.
Furthermore, All major cities face enormous challenges in managing urban waste. The government of Pakistan estimates that 87,000 tons of solid waste are generated per day. Most waste comes from major metropolitan areas.
Moreover, Utilizing an innovative solution that is gaining traction around the world, Coca-Cola Pakistan and Afghanistan partnered up with technology hub Teamup and the Capital Development Authority to use plastic waste to re-carpet roads, recycling almost 10 tons of plastic waste to pave a kilometer-long patch of Ataturk Avenue in Islamabad at a cost of Rs21 million.
“As part of our global sustainability and environmental goals and vision, together with TeamUp, we focused on creating & developing a bituminous mixture that can provide longer-lasting and smoother roads than we have today,” Coca Cola said.
What is Plastic Material Road?
Plastic roads use 100% plastic or composites of plastic with other materials. Plastic roads are different from standard roads because standard roads use asphalt concrete. Asphalt concrete consists of mineral aggregates and asphalt. Currently, there are no records of regular roads purely of plastic. While plastic composite roads have existed and demonstrate characteristics superior to regular asphalt concrete roads. Specifically, they show better wear resistance. The implementation of plastics inroads also opens a new option for recycling post-consumer plastics.
India has installed over 60,000 miles of plastic roads. Technology is also gaining ground in Britain, Europe, and Asia. Several countries have built their first plastic roads recently. They include South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United States.
The project aligns with the World Without Waste initiative and also with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of the future.
“This plastic road project will set the stage for the future of innovation,” Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Amer Ali Ahmed said. “What is particularly exciting is how this opens us up to the possibility of now making this a reality across the nation.”
VP Fahad Ashraf added: “This idea provides a breakthrough solution to bring back plastic waste into the productive economy. And we also want to focus on building a community around the idea and the innovation itself.
