In India, Plastic Roads

"There's a great future in plastics."

Apparently that phrase is as true today as it was when the character of Mr. McGuire said it to Ben in the 1967 film The Graduate.

In India, anyway, plastic holds great new innovative potential. A company called K.K. Plastic Waste Management is making roads out of plastic. And not toy roads; these are real roads, the kind you drive your cars on.

The New York Times reports that mixing plastic with asphalt forms a compound called polymerized bitumen, which is stronger and more durable than traditional pavement. K.K. Plastic Waste Management has used this compound to lay more than 745 miles of roads in Bangalore, India’s technology center.

These 745 miles have used 3,500 tons of plastic waste such as plastic bags and packaging material. So not only are the roads stronger but they provide a way to ease the pressure on India's overflowing landfills and reduce pollution of plastics. Plastic bags and bottles clog drainage systems, mar beaches, damage marine life and harm animals. In 2000, for example, 3,000 cows died in Lucknow from swallowing plastic bags.

“We have to start looking at plastic as raw material rather than waste,” Ahmed Khan, founder of the company, told the Times.

And now, that magic moment when Mr. McGuire gives his avuncular advice.

Photo courtesy of Kopfjäger, via Flickr