India currently generates around 18 million MT of plastic waste annually which is projected to go up to 55 million MT by 2040. Though the per capita plastic consumption is lower in India compared to developed nations, the sheer population of the country makes plastic waste a humongous problem to deal with. To add to this problem, most of the plastic waste is currently generated in cities. However, owing to changing lifestyles the urban problem is swiftly becoming a rural problem as well. As mentioned earlier, plastic resins can be potentially recycled. However, mixed plastic waste necessitates segregation before being able to recycle. The segregation costs (which is only partially automated) lead to higher cost of recycled plastic than virgin plastic in many scenarios which limits the recycling option to only high value high volume resins.

After segregation and recycling, most of the residual plastic waste (around 80% of the total plastic waste) ends up in landfill. New technologies are coming up for utilization of residual plastic waste which include its usage as refuse derived fuel (RDF) to replace coal or subjecting it to catalytic depolymerization to generate polyfuel that can replace diesel. However, these strategies are dependent on a multitude of parameters that include cost of coal and diesel, transportation cost of low-density residual plastic waste to processing facilities, and supply chain for generated fuel products. Inevitably, these approaches end up depending on subsidies to be profitable and are not sustainable at least over next decade.

The residual plastic waste can be easily shredded to a size of 40-50 mm that makes its compacting feasible. The residual plastic waste contains a lot of thermoplastic resins that can act as binder to enable compacting it into boards/beads/blocks/rods and be utilized in construction materials as fillers. A screw conveyor cum reactor with provision for external heating can be utilized for this purpose and the operation can be carried out at the point of plastic waste disposal (landfills). This strategy involves transit of only high density finished goods and is independent of cost of petroleum to attain breakeven point. The reuse of residual plastic as filler in construction material is economically viable, socially gratifying and therefore politically acceptable solution for plastic waste management.