WASTE PLASTICS : PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 2012 Mrs Almitra Patel, Member Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail.com www.almitrapatel.com

Let us be proud of India’s small ecological footprint! We produce 75 - 100 gm non-degradable discards per capita per day in big cities, vs 1-2 kg per capita per day in the West. But even this is too much for our environment to handle. So we should not copy the ways of throwaway cultures.

Thin-film plastics in our mixed waste is increasing. In 1993, 1-2% by weight reached the dumps. In 2012, it is 7-10% in some cities. Plastic volumes now exceed the volume of compost produced in compost plants. Plastics must be removed to prevent damage to soil porosity and water absorption, and the poor germination of seeds.

Thin-film plastics on right are more voluminous than the sieved compost produced.

In India, recycling supports 0.5 – 1% of a city’s population MSW Rules 2000 direct Municipalities to “promote recycling or reuse of segregated materials” and “ensure community participation in segregation” Almost all plastics are recyclable, and are collected if it is economically worthwhile and gives a survival wage. But “Recyclable” is meaningless unless Recycling is actually done!

WHAT IS HARD TO RECYCLE? Carry-bags and thin-film packaging of foodstuffs were recycled till collection costs became unviable. If they can fetch a street price of Rs 5-6 per kg, they can be very usefully used in asphalt roads, replacing 8% by weight of bitumen and giving 250%-300% better road life and less pot-holes.

WHAT IS RECYCLED ? PET Bottles are crushed and flakes exported to China to make T-shirts. Tetrapaks are pulped to remove their 75% wood fibre and the plastics and foil makes strong light roofing sheets. Hard plastics are high-value and collected for recycling into new plastic items.

THIN PLASTICS ARE ALSO RECYCLED Malegaon in Maharashtra is Asia’s largest plastics recycling centre. It produces every kind of plastic-recycling eqpt too. Thin plastics are melted into “gatta” lumps which are ground to smaller bits and used to make good quality agricultural and borewell piping etc.

What is NOT currently recycled? Metallised multifilm from namkeen & kurkure sachets etc is hard to recycle because of different melting temperatures of the layers. The gum on BOPP film labels on PET bottles interferes with recycling. Micro-sachets are not worth collecting by picking: we need “take-back” schemes to capture these. Thermocole is too bulky to transport so it is not economical to collect for recycling.

ALL CAN BE SHREDDED FOR IMPROVING TAR ROAD LIFE Finely-shredded thin carrybags, multifilms and thermocole can be sprinkled onto heated stones in a hot-mix plant. They soften and give the stones a good coating to which tar bonds very firmly. Road life is more than doubled. Costs are also less as 8% by weight of bitumen can be replaced by shredded plastic.

SEE CPCB GUIDELINES FOR SUCH “PLASTIC ROADS” PROBES/101/2005-06 : Indicative Operational Guidelines on Construction of Polymer-Bitumen Roads for Reuse of Waste Plastics. PROBES/122/2008-09 : Performance Evalua-tion of Polymer Coated Bitumen Roads. Such “plastic roads” are State policy in Tamil Nadu (over 2000 km since 2003) and in Himachal Pradesh (PWD buys shredded plastic from NGOs at Rs 6/kg).

FUEL OIL FROM PLASTICS IS NOW ECONOMICALLY VIABLE Depolymerisation of mixed plastics by heating below 450oC gives A gas fraction used for heating the unit A fuel oil fraction like diesel which can be used for stationary uses (gen-sets) A solid “char” fraction which can make activated charcoal or be used like coal.

PLASTIC IS A HIGH-CALORIE LOW-ASH FUEL Cement kilns are beginning to use plastics and high-calorie industrial wastes as AFR= Alternate Fuel Resources to replace coal. They are willing to pay for Steady Supplies of Uniform Quality. Or they accept wastes delivered free to their factory gate. A new Garbage Sifter can recycle space by separating heaps of old waste into fine organic fraction, sand/gravel and plastics.

SEGREGATION IS THE KEY For all of these options, it is important to have clean plastics free of food wastes. That is why the MSW Rules give so much importance to keeping compostable ‘wet’ food wastes separate from ‘dry’ recyclable wastes, at the home level. Cities must COLLECT AND TRANSPORT WET & DRY WASTES SEPARATELY. Daily collection of Wet waste & WEEKLY collection of Dry waste works best.

FULLY COMPOSTABLE PLASTIC IS AVAILABLE It becomes water and carbon dioxide and should be used wherever plasics enter the composting stream: Garbage bags for food wastes Liners for disposable diapers Liners for sanitary napkins For micro-sachets and pouch packings Use-and-throw cups which are now of recyclable HIPS but too bulky to collect

Where NOT to use Biopolymers DO NOT try to biodegrade PVC or halogen-containing polymers. Dioxins will form in contact with organics in soil /water Pune wrongly insists on costly “degradable” bags for hospital waste which is incinerated within a few hours! DO NOT USE “OXO-DEGRADABLE” BAGS. They do not become compost but break into thousands of tiny uncollectable bits which remain in soil and release heavy metals.

THANK YOU www.almitrapatel.com