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Eco-friendly Concrete Using Waste Plastic Bottles as Aggregate: A Case Study from Oman
Summary
This Omani study tested concrete made with waste plastic PET bottles as a partial replacement for fine aggregate. Adding recycled plastic to concrete is a promising strategy to divert plastic waste from the environment, and the study found acceptable mechanical performance for non-structural applications.
Waste plastic bottles (WPB) (polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) type are used widely for water storage and eventually become environmental burden. This study investigated an innovative application of the WPB to partially replace the fine aggregate in concrete nonstructural element. This research evaluated the effect of plastic content on concrete mechanical and physical properties. The WPBs were ground into < 5 mm in size equal to the fine aggregate size. Therefore, different percentages of WPB were used namely 10, 20 and 30%. The results revealed that 20% of the WPB showed the best results to produce light weight concrete. The compressive strength was reduced by 20% only with 20% of WPB which it declined by 42% with higher WPB content. Moreover, concrete with 20% of WPB content achieved ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) of 3 km/s which indicated a satisfactory level of concrete integrity. This indeed clearly indicated that the plastic content should be carefully selected before full applications. This study suggested that each cubic meter of concrete can accommodate around 100 kg of WPB. Indeed, that will reduce the pressure on landfills and the environment by having this innovative application.