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:
Converting plastic waste into tiles
Delhi-based CSIR-NPL has developed an eco-friendly and patented technology to manufacture tiles from plastic waste. It has signed a license with a private firm to manufacture tiles on a commercial scale. The firm plans to set up a recycling unit at an investment of Rs 3.2 crore; it will have the capacity to produce 5 lakh tiles per month. NPL will help fabricate waste plastic into 3-60 mm thick tiles with aesthetic designs that can be customized. The product has been tested for flammability, water absorption, and mechanical strength, as per the standards set by the American Society for Testing Materials.
Turning plastic waste into building materials

In Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), researchers have developed a building material made from cigarette butts mixed with plastic waste, bitumen and paraffin wax. The material is finding application in laying roads etc and in construction as a good lightweight composite material. It is capable of handling heavy traffic load on roads and it reduces thermal conductivity.
Utilisation of plastic waste in road construction

Harvesting plastic waste
The Kerala government has set an example for other states to follow with its innovative solution: it is using its fishermen to harvest plastic waste from the sea. Once harvested, the plastic material is shredded by a machine, and then used as an asphalt substitute or a supplement for in-road surfacing. The process has led to income-generation opportunities for the fishermen and for makers of plastic shredding machines in the area.
Making paper from plastic waste
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission has developed a scheme called REPLAN, wherein processed and de-structured plastic is mixed with cotton fibre rags, followed by multiple stages of treatment to produce pulp, which is turned into paper. Because of its strength and durability, this paper can be used to make paper bags, fine tissues, and other paper-based eco- friendly products. The plastic paper is currently being produced at a unit of KVIC in Jaipur, and more such units are being planned for localized production.
The way forward

There is also an urgent need to expand the development and application scope of recycled/retreated waste by evaluating the intrinsic potential of all kinds of waste, including the prospect of large-scale utilization, preceded by a preparation of relevant codes of use and practices for different applications.
The government has pledged to make our country free of plastic waste by 2022 and we should equip ourselves technologically and socially to redeem this pledge - right away.