‘What difference will one plastic bottle make?’
This is a lie we tell ourselves as we throw yet another plastic bottle into the trash can. And this is what the 8 billion humans that inhabit this Earth tell themselves as they throw an estimated 27 million tons of plastic in landfills and 8 million tons into the oceans every year. We are literally drowning in plastic!
While Environmentalists agree that the most effective way to save Earth is to reduce single plastic usage and recycle wherever possible, however more steps need to be taken to save the planet from impending disaster. Many experiments are being done to find ways to reuse plastic effectively. One of the recent innovations is the use of plastic for construction of roads. Plastic roads first developed in 2001, consist of an asphalt mix with plastic waste incorporated into the asphalt mixture. … Australia, Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries have used technology which can incorporate plastic waste into an asphalt mix.
For the very first time, Pakistan has also decided to use this technique to reuse plastic waste. Our first ever ‘Plastic road’ is being made by the Capital Development Authority in Islamabad in partnership with other private organizations. The Ataturk Avenue in Islamabad will be re-carpeted using 8 tons of used plastic PET bottles. This will literally ‘pave’ the way for effective recycling of the tons of plastic bottles thrown every year.
Innovations like these tell us that there is hope for the future and it is the new generation that will definitely lead the way by doing research and finding practical solutions like these!