Plastic Roads in India: What the Rules Actually Say
Our old post on this topic said plastic roads are made entirely of plastic, and it listed PVC among the plastics used. Both points were wrong, and I want to correct them here.
In India, a "plastic road" is an ordinary bituminous road with a small dose of shredded waste plastic added to the top layer. The plastic is up to about 8% of the weight of the bitumen, not a replacement for it. Only certain plastics are allowed, and PVC is not one of them.
Here is what the official documents say.
How is waste plastic used in a road?
The method is called the dry process. It is set out by the Indian Roads Congress in IRC:SP:98, first published in 2013 and revised in December 2020.
- Clean waste plastic is shredded to pieces between 2.36 mm and 600 microns.
- Dust and other impurities must not be more than 1% by weight of the plastic.
- The shredded plastic is added to the hot stone aggregate. It melts and coats each stone with a thin plastic layer.
- Hot bitumen is then mixed in, and the mix is laid like any other bituminous road.
There is also a wet process, where plastic is blended into the bitumen itself. MoRTH notes that it is not being used on national highways because of quality issues.
One rule surprised me. The bitumen content must not be reduced because plastic has been added. The plastic improves the road. It does not save bitumen.
Which plastics are allowed?
As per a MoRTH presentation from February 2024, only polyethylene is recommended for the dry process:
- LDPE: carry bags, milk pouches, bin liners, sacks.
- HDPE: carry bags, bottle caps, household articles.
PET, PP, polystyrene and PVC are not recommended. Heating PVC releases toxic gases, and the plastic must never be heated above 180°C. Its melting point must also be below 170°C so that it coats the aggregate properly.
As a film maker, I find that list important. The milk pouch and the LDPE film are exactly the kind of thin plastic that often ends up as litter, and they are what the road guidelines want.
What do the rules require?
- 9 November 2015: MoRTH asked for waste plastic in the surface course of periodic renewal work on roads within 50 km of cities with more than 5 lakh people.
- 26 March 2021: this became mandatory for service roads on national highways within that same 50 km area.
- 2 June 2022: NHAI policy asked for waste plastic in 5% of the road length of a project.
- The rural roads programme (PMGSY), through its 2022 technology guidelines, asks states to use waste plastic in at least 70% of the eligible length built with the hot mix process.
How many roads have been built this way?
Under PMGSY alone, 43,700 km of rural roads with waste plastic had been completed by 31 July 2025, out of 56,875 km sanctioned. That was stated by the Ministry of Rural Development in Parliament in August 2025.
The same reply cites a performance study by seven institutes, supervised by IIT Madras. It found less ravelling, cracking and potholing on waste plastic roads than on conventional ones.
Are there downsides?
Yes, and MoRTH itself names them. Overheated plastic can release toxic fumes, so workers at the mixing plant and the laying site need masks. Overheated plastic can also add to microplastic pollution through run-off water into soil and water bodies. Temperature control is the whole game here.
There is a bigger point too. A plastic road is a good use for waste we already have. It is not a reason to make more of it.
What this means for packaging
If you buy plastic packaging, choose single-material polyethylene where you can, e.g. a plain LDPE film rather than a film laminated with three different plastics. If you are not sure which polymer a film in our plastic films range is made of, ask us. We will tell you plainly. Clean PE has a second life, in a recycler's plant or in a road. A mixed laminate usually has none.
And keep it thin. The less plastic in a pack, the less there is to send anywhere.
Sources
- O P Shrivastava, Chief Engineer, MoRTH, "Use of Waste Plastic in Road Construction", 17 February 2024 (PDF, Swachh Bharat Mission).
- Ministry of Rural Development, "Construction of Roads using Plastic Wastes", PIB, 19 August 2025 (PIB).
- Indian Roads Congress, IRC:SP:98, Guidelines for the Use of Waste Plastic in Hot Bituminous Mixes (Dry Process) in Wearing Courses, 2013, revised 2020.
