Do you know that the world is producing 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year almost equivalent to the weight of the entire human population, of which a staggering 8 million tonnes flows into our oceans and the rest into landfills or burnt into the atmosphere, thus creating a massive threat to both land and marine environment and leading to severe health hazards. Researchers say that if not controlled, our oceans would have more plastic than fishes by the year 2050. Our planet is drowning in plastic pollution and its time to act decisively.
This is the story of Dr Rajagopalan Vasudevan, Dean and Head of the Deapartment of Chemistry at the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai, in the State of Tamil Nadu in southern India. An extraordinary individual who has dedicated himself to the task of rescuing our world from one of the most dreaded pollutants, ‘ plastic’.
Dr Vasudevan developed an innovative method reusing shredded plastic mixed with hot gravel added to molten asphalt, to build roads in 2002. The roads turned out to be much more durable and long lasting and cheaper as well. With this innovation Dr Vasudevan was able to solve two major concerns at the same time –1.building cost effective roads and 2. putting the ever increasing plastic waste to good use. His effort was patented in 2006 . The govt of India took note of his achievement and in 2015 made it mandatory for all road developers to use plastic waste and awarded this simple unassuming man with the Padma Shri in 2018. He also created Plastone from plastic waste , a much stronger and cheaper substitute for cement blocks .
Dr Vasudevan , the Plastic Man of India , is not just a citizen of India , but an Ambassador of the world, who has worked hard to give some thing back to Mother Earth . Let us all try to be responsible citizens , let us all try to create less plastic pollutants , let us all try and take care of the environment around us and let us try to give something back to our mother Earth .