Binder1 Inner_JRD

SOCIETY
Taking matters into her own hands, founder of Rudra
environmental solutions, Dr. Medha Tadpatrikar
successfully started converting non-degradable
plastic into poly-fuel which utilises polymer waste
to generate hydrocarbon fuels from plastic wastes.
Accepting all kinds of plastic waste right from bottles, bags,
food pouches, wrappers and, cable covers from household
across the city once every fortnight, Rudra then recycles it into
fuel, gas and sludge. Rudra was incepted when; Medha
witnessed the death of a deer in a wild life sanctuary due to
plastic and was devastated to see that defenceless animals had
died because of litter someone had unknowingly thrown away.
Deeply touched and motivated by this incident, Medha was
determined to find a solution to recycle plastic. The first pilot
machine was up and running by 2010 which successfully
recycled waste plastic in to usable fuel and have now expanded
to two full fledged working plants in and around Pune.
The machines produce poly-fuel utilising the process of
Pyrolysis, that is, the decomposition of condensed substances
by heating and the process is fairly simple. The collected plastic
from various homes and entities is dumped into the reactor.
The reactor is fed with the shredded plastic and is heated in
absence of oxygen that produces hydrocarbon vapours
(methane and propane). The condensed vapour produces the
fuel and synthetic gases, out of which the syngas is used as
energy source for the further heating of reactor. This synthetic
gas, which is a by product is passed through scrubber and
cleaned prior to use as a heating source; helping improve the
efficiency of the process. The fuel passes through filtration
system before it’s collected. The non-plastic material plastic falls
at the bottom of reactor, this can be collected after the shift or
during weekly maintenance. This can be used with the bitumen
in making roads. The team gives it to local builders who use it
for the construction of internal roads within housing societies.
In this way, 100 per cent of the plastic waste is recycled with no
emission and no harm to the environment. For every 100 kg of
plastic, 45-65 litres of fuel are generated. “Plastic is basically
made from crude oil. So we thought of reversing the process
and obtaining fuel from it,” says Medha.
Their small efforts have grown to a point where, the team
successfully collects five to six tons of plastic waste from 9,500
households, corporate, hotels and, businesses in a month! “As
it’s the easiest way to help environment, many are open and
welcome the idea of segregation and handing over the plastic
to us. We are changing people’s habits, and they are realising
that we all need to work together. We have recently started
collection from faraway places like Dombiwali, and Thane. We
have learned not to give up. We are changing people’s habits,
and they are realising that we all need to work together. I get a
chance to meet variety of people and learn from them and
when I see the collected plastic waste, it makes me happy,
knowing that at least that much plastic is not going to landfill,”
adds Medha.
As far as success stories go, Medha has come across senior
citizens, more than 90 years old who help out with segregating
and advocating the cause. Rudra also provides alternative fuel
options to women in villages which is encouraging them to not
burn plastic and use it as a heating source thus reducing
pollution. “When women in villages come and say how much
their lives have become easy due to use of fuel in stoves I am
encouraged to work harder,” says Medha.
In the coming future, Medha plans to install smaller
conversion plants in all taluka in India which will drive them to
increase their collections and hit the mark of more than 25,000
households. She is hopeful that there will be a change in peoples
discarding habits which will encourage people to start segregate
plastic in order for Medha and her to put it to better use. Every
day we pollute our earth, we forget that the earth does not need
us but we need it
Everything didn’t come easy to Medha. Being a woman, she
stopped at nothing. She was never raised to be a woman, but
rather a human being. There was no such thing as you can’t do
this in her household. “When I meet people they are more
amazed that I am not engineer rather than I am a woman,” says
Medha. When she started off with Rudra, creating awareness
was the big challenge, followed by logistics, even so that if
someone, a said driver falls ill, they miss their collection drive.
sanaanalwalla@crememagazine.in
MARCH 2017 29