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Single Use Personal Protective Equipment Reinforced Asphalt
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This study examines whether single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) waste, such as disposable masks and gloves, can be shredded and incorporated into asphalt mixtures as a reinforcing additive. The research evaluates the mechanical performance and durability of PPE-reinforced asphalt compared to conventional formulations. This approach offers a potential waste diversion strategy for the surge in PPE disposal generated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global personal protective equipment (PPE) volume production and demand increased by 300-400% between 2019 and 2021. In this scenario, the present study aims to propose and validate an innovative circular economy scenario for end of life (EoL) PPEs, reusing them to produce reinforced bituminous mixtures. Despite that several studies confirmed the possibility of reusing plastic in the asphalt mixtures, none of them investigated the potential of PPEs, highlighting the innovativeness in the scientific panorama. Five different alternatives of EoL PPE mixtures (different products, materials, dosages, etc.) were tested at laboratory scale to verify the technical feasibility of the proposed scenario. The most promising solution resulted to be the mix of gloves and face masks composed by polypropylene, polyethylene, nitrile and lattice at a dosage of 0,5% weight/weight that allowed to produce bituminous mixtures with acceptable performances in terms of relevant mechanical parameters while recycling waste PPEs. This leads to environmental benefits, since more than 3kg of EoL PPEs per square meter of road pavement can be reused instead of disposed (about 1,5 million tons/year considering the bituminous mixtures produced at European level), as well as economic benefits for public administrations and the collectivity, due to the reduced landfilling of solid wastes.
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