Plastic waste (PW) is identified as the biggest health hazard to human life in recent years. Efforts to ban use of plastic by various sanctions have been futile due to their economic advantage, usefulness, durability, and versatile nature. To address the challenges posed by indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste various efforts to recycle it have been initiated but they have remained insufficient due to the high cost of collection, cleaning, and sorting before they can be recycled. And therefore, it is important to upcycle the plastic waste into secondary purposes where their strength and durability can be used to the advantage of the society. Most road failures in India start with failure of subgrade soil, compacted soil subgrade occupies about 50-70% volume of a flexible pavement. their strength and swell behavior is affected by water penetration. studies have incorporated various reinforcing materials to enhance strength of weak soils. This investigation explores the effects of plastic waste as a soil reinforcing material for improving weak properties of soils by evaluating water adsorption, swelling behavior and strength of soil. Locally available marine clay and fine gravel were reinforced with plastic waste, the results demonstrate an increase of 11% and 18% in California bearing ratio (CBR), reduction in swell behavior and increase in shear strength. This enhancement of strength can be a boon in construction of roads as this may prevent failure of pavement, increase durability of roads and support the PW handling small business to ultimately provide a sustainable approach to plastic waste management