Indian Oil invites EoI for plastic waste procurement

New Delhi: On the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, oil major Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) released a National Expression of Interest (EOI) for procurement of plastic waste and announced initiatives towards making the environment plastic-free. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas' (MoPNG) Secretary Dr MM Kutty, along with Indian Oil Chairman Sanjiv Singh, flagged off 10 LPG delivery vans with banners to promote repurposed used cooking oil (RUCO) in New Delhi.

Indian Oil's Director (Planning & Business Development) GK Satish, Executive Director (Delhi State Office) Shyam Bohra, Executive Director (HR) SK Bose, Executive Director (AE&SD) Subodh Kumar, Executive Director (Coordination) Sangeeta Munjal and other senior officials were also present on the occasion. Here are Indian Oil's four initiatives to make environment plastic neutral:

Single-use waste plastic-based bituminous road

Indian Oil's research and development (R&D) centre has conducted a study and evaluated the effect of shredded waste plastic on bituminous concrete. As per the lab tests, plastic waste roads have the advantages of higher strength, increased durability, lesser rainwater seepage due to plastic in the aggregates, better binding and bonding of mix and lesser stripping with fewer potholes. R&D has worked out various compositions of waste plastic that can be incorporated in aggregates. Around 850 metres of the road outside Indian Oil R&D Centre in Faridabad has been laid for trial at varying concentrations between 1-3 percent of single-use waste plastic. This is by far the maximum percentage of waste plastic used for paving bituminous roads.

For this purpose, about 16 MT of waste plastic from single-use carry bags and packaging film waste has been used. The performance of this road will be monitored by Indian Oil R&D centre in association with CSIR-CRRI, and the concentration of single-use plastic to be added will be fine-tuned. The plastic road was inspected and test-launched for use by  Indian Oil's Director (R&D) Dr SSV Ramakumar and other Indian Oil officials on Wednesday at Faridabad.

Special grade crumb rubber-modified bitumen (CRMB55)

A special grade of Bitumen CRMB55 has been designed using 2 wt percent of waste (single-use) plastic material. The new grade has equivalent performance to the existing bitumen product CRMB 55 as demonstrated in the lab. One customer has released the first supply of CRMB55 from Panipat when a truck loaded with this product was flagged off by Indian Oil's Chairman Sanjiv Singh in the presence of senior officials.

Soluble bitumen poly bags

In another novel initiative, polybags for bitumen filling were produced from 100 percent single-use waste plastic, which solubilise fully in the bitumen at the time of road paving. Bitumen is packed in two-layered specially designed polybags – one inner liner bag for filling and another outer (raffia) bag with handle for ease of handling. At the user's end, the outer bag is removed and bitumen along with the inner bags can be charged into the bitumen hot mix plant. During the bitumen melting process at the road construction site, the inner bag melts and completely homogenizes with the bitumen, which can be further used in the same way as conventionally packed bitumen.

Expression of Interest (EOI) for procurement of plastic waste

In order to establish a robust supply chain of waste (single-use) plastic material for implementing the above initiatives on a regular basis and to develop a sustainable business model which comprises of various organised aggregators and NGOs , Indian Oil also released a National Expression of Interest (EOI) for assessing the market availability and willingness of parties, aggregators and organisations to supply different types of waste plastics in commercial quantities on consistent basis. "As a part of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and in a bid to achieve plastic neutrality, Indian Oil has worked out these various options of using waste plastics leading to value creation for different stakeholders in the waste plastic ecosystem," an official statement added.

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