Utilization of Waste Plastic in Manufacturing of Paver Blocks: A Pilot Study of Solid Waste Management in Shaheed Benazirabad

The increasing amount of plastic waste has now become a serious environmental issue, especially in developing countries where adequate waste-management systems are generally lacking. The present study looks at whether it is possible to use waste plastic which is locally available to make paving blocks and examines their technical and economic performance in Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan. For this pilot study, waste polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) was gathered from local communities, markets and disposal sites. The plastic obtained was cleaned, dried and then cut into particles sized between 2 and 5 mm. Various binder mixtures were tried, and paver blocks of dimensions 190 × 90 × 35 mm were made and cured at 50°C and 70°C for 24, 40 and 72 hours. A hundred of the paver blocks were tested for compressive strength, density and water absorption and the production cost and the variation of strength were also studied. The average compressive strength was 20 Mpa (SD = 3 Mpa), which is higher than the minimum 15 Mpa that is typical of the other conventional paving blocks. The average density of the blocks was 1,900 kg/m³ and water absorbed by the blocks after 24 hours was 5.2%, which was below the 10% reference. The coefficient of variance of the compressive strength was 15%, indicating a fairly consistent performance. In an economic sense, estimated cost of production was US$2.00 per block compared with US$3.00 for a conventional concrete block resulting in a saving of approximately 33.3%. These findings suggest that waste-plastic paver blocks can be used as both an effective and environmentally friendly method for managing plastic waste and creating valuable building materials, all at a reasonable cost.