Turning Plastic Waste into Eco-friendly Building Materials & Products
S K Khanna
Since the past 65 years, about 8.3 billion tons of plastics have been produced worldwide, which is equivalent to 10,000 Eiffel Towers or 35,000 Empire State Buildings. But only 9 percent of all plastics gets recycled, while the rest ends up as trash. About 8 million tons goes into the ocean every year and the figure could rise to 500 million tons by 2020. Plastic has an adverse effect on human health, marine life, and the environment, as it pollutes our soil and water.
Flagging their concern at the recent International Plastic Bag Free Day, people resolved to eliminate plastic in their daily life. They asserted that the inventors of plastic should now devise ways to get rid of it. Enough is enough, said the environmentalists, with their message: Reduce, Recycle & Don’t Reuse.
Suggestions raised at the meeting included managing plastic waste, and utilizing it in a technologically feasible, economically viable, eco-friendly, and socially acceptable manner. In fact, scientists, technologists, environmentalists, and engineers all over the world are researching and developing effective disposal and utilization of plastic waste, for example, in the construction of infrastructure projects. Some of the recent developments in turning plastic waste into eco-friendly products and materials are given below:
Since the past 65 years, about 8.3 billion tons of plastics have been produced worldwide, which is equivalent to 10,000 Eiffel Towers or 35,000 Empire State Buildings. But only 9 percent of all plastics gets recycled, while the rest ends up as trash. About 8 million tons goes into the ocean every year and the figure could rise to 500 million tons by 2020. Plastic has an adverse effect on human health, marine life, and the environment, as it pollutes our soil and water.
Flagging their concern at the recent International Plastic Bag Free Day, people resolved to eliminate plastic in their daily life. They asserted that the inventors of plastic should now devise ways to get rid of it. Enough is enough, said the environmentalists, with their message: Reduce, Recycle & Don’t Reuse.
Suggestions raised at the meeting included managing plastic waste, and utilizing it in a technologically feasible, economically viable, eco-friendly, and socially acceptable manner. In fact, scientists, technologists, environmentalists, and engineers all over the world are researching and developing effective disposal and utilization of plastic waste, for example, in the construction of infrastructure projects. Some of the recent developments in turning plastic waste into eco-friendly products and materials are given below:
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NBM&CW August 2019
