The Green Road is Bhutan’s first and only company that utilizes waste plastics in blacktopping roads. The company since its inception in October 2014 has blacktopped 108 kilometers of roads and reused 560 tons of waste plastics replacing import of 560tons of bitumen from India.
Minimising resource use (costly bitumen import & substitution with waste plastic), has been the pivotal theme in this circular economy model and this is being achieved through designing out waste and pollution and keeping products and materials in use. The project has also brought benefits in terms of better and durable roads, (cost savings in repair and maintenance (road life extended by 5 years over conventional 1yr guarantees) and freeing of landfill space and associated environmental impacts
The project is a direct answer to the growing menace of plastics in the economy, landfill space constraints, lingering environmental impacts of plastics, unsustainable SCP patterns, concomitant pollution, increased road traffic and increasing cost of repair and maintenance of roads in Bhutan.
Sustainability principles have been built both into the project design at inception as well its evolution from being a waste management start- up to a full-fledged road contracting set up. The start-up took off as a volunteer driven waste collection company collecting waste plastic from households, industries, and landfills, segregating it, and supplying to roads department along with the technical knowhow of plastic roads. With bank loans, the start-up added an asphalt plant and became a private sustainable business entrepreneur engaged in all operations of plastic roads from collection of wastes to road development.
The start -up over the years has transformed into a vibrant tripartite partnership entity with government, (public roads department) and local (municipality) and financial institutional support and is practicing and promoting the principles of 3R’s under the Waste Prevention and Management Act and Regulation, 2012.
The project has also added employment opportunities across municipalities with jobs across the entire gamut of operations from collection to laying of roads. The company employs 35 persons presently with plans to scale up to 200 by end 2023.
The use of waste plastic in road making is a proven and well-established technology offering triple bottom line benefits in many countries. The start-up has used social media effectively ( both digital and print media ) as well as grassroot volunteer driven approach to communicate and influence responsible behaviour to address the problem of waste plastics, landfill land use, pollution from plastics and empowering every stakeholder with a changed mindset towards SCP.
Established in 14th October 2014, The Green Road is Bhutan’s first and only company that utilizes waste plastic in blacktopping roads. It was inaugurated by Her Majesty Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck.
It was in 2003 that Rikesh Gurung, founder of The Green Road saw plastic wastes being reused to blacktop road by Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Tamil Nadu, India. Inspired by the technology, he took trainings and worked in India for few years after his graduation.
A decade after he first saw the technology, he began working towards his aspiration to introduce the eco-friendly technology a reality in Bhutan. After making more than 10 presentations to the department of roads and other agencies on his proposal, his project received support from the Business Opportunity and Information Centre (BOiC). He also received support of 4mn from his parents. The new road blacktopping technology is dedicated to the 60th Birth Anniversary of the Fourth Druk Gyalpo.
