End to waste plastic menace through national 100,000 km roads program

Thursday, 3 December 2020 00:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Highways Minister Johnston Fernando, State Minister of Rural Roads and other Infrastructure Nimal Lanza and Western Province Provincial Roads Development Authority General Manager R.M.S. Bandaranayaka

Introduction of an innovative technology of utilising waste plastic as a value-added product for road paving for highway infrastructure development

A sustainable solution has been found to the ever-increasing waste plastic problem in Sri Lanka by an innovative technology that converts non-recyclable plastic as a raw material to modify asphalt as a value-added product called plastic modified asphalt concrete to be used extensively in the highway road carpeting sector, through a strategic arrangement between the Western Province Waste Management Authority and Western Province Provincial Road Development Authority.

A ground-breaking achievement of this project was the inauguration of the Ekala-Kudahapola West-Temple Road Project, under the Government’s ambitious national program of 100,000 km roads, on 29 November by Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando, State Minister of Rural Roads and other Infrastructure Nimal Lanza, Ministry of Highways Secretary R.W.R. Premasiri, and Provincial Roads Development Authority General Manager R.M.S. Bandaranayaka.

AGC Innovate Ltd. has pioneered this innovative technology for use in Sri Lanka.

Under this tripartite arrangement, the waste plastic for this project will be provided by the Western Province Waste Management Authority while the Western Province Provincial Road Development Authority will consistently use the product for road paving under the technology provided by AGC Innovate Ltd., thus confirming the sustainability of this environmentally-friendly endeavour.

– Pix by Sudath Silva