road plastic
India completed building 100,000km of road using plastic waste in nearly four years. Credit: suwichan pralomram from Pixabay.

India has completed the building of 100,000km of road using plastic waste, reported Hindustan, a sister publication of Hindustan Times.

The South Asian country reached the milestone in nearly four years after the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways announced in 2016 that plastic waste will be deployed in constructing roadways.

The roads comprise around 6% to 8% plastic and 92% to 94% bitumen.

According to the publication, 1km of road requires around nine tonnes of bitumen and one tonne of plastic waste.

The process reduces costs related to bitumen usage, as well as helping to reduce the amount of plastic waste that is dumped in landfills and oceans.

Currently, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has made the use of plastic waste mandatory for the construction of arterial roads.

As of this year, the Indian state of Assam has also started using the material for building roads.

In addition, the construction of the 270km-long Jammu Kashmir National highway and a 2km section of Delhi-Meerut highway have used plastic.

The government now plans to build another 100,000km of roads using plastic waste in this financial year.

India generates around 25,940t of plastic waste every day, 60% of which is recycled.

Last week, India inaugurated six bridges in Jammu and Kashmir to support the movement of armed troops and logistical supplies in the strategic region.

The bridges span between 30m and 300m, and were built with a combined investment of Rs430m ($5.71m).