MAKING MGNREGA MORE PRODUCTIVE: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PLASTIC RECYCLERS
Gone are those days when schemes were floated under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 ("MGNREGA") for fixing potholes. Union Budget 2014-15 provides that MGNREGA will now be used for creating viable and long-term rural assets leading to greater wage employments. When we speak about long-term rural asset creation, the importance of rural road network connectivity cannot be forgotten. With the possibility of using recycled plastic for constructing modern plastic roads, an incentive based waste segregation model would be of great utility for Indian plastic recyclers. The associations of Indian plastic recyclers must put forth the demand of such model to central and state governments.
Step 1: Citizens will segregate the non-biodegradable wastes in special containers;
Step 2: Trained representatives of plastic recycling companies will come to doorstep, inspect, weigh and collect the plastic wastes;
Step 3: The respective citizens will be paid for the plastic wastes at a rate notified by the government in consultation with the association of plastic recycling entrepreneurs (say Rs. 10/- per kg). This way citizens will find proper waste segregation interesting and profitable as opposed to present notion of boring and burdensome;
Step 4: Collected plastic waste will be loaded into CNG waste dumpers (which means they can be run in bio-gas as well);
Step 5: The organic wastes will be taken to plastic recycling plants located at the outskirts of the city;
Step 6: The plastic recycling plants will process the waste, produce plastic granules/flakes;
Step 7: The plastic flakes will be sold to construction companies which will mix them with bitumen;
Step 8: Plastic flakes mixed bitumen will be used for construction of road (this will help in achieving better hardness, better resistance to water penetration and long lastingness).
Step 9: The entire process will generate money and return the investment to the plastic recycling entrepreneurs besides improving the country's infrastructure.