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Application of municipal solid waste in road construction
Summary
This study reviews the potential of incorporating municipal solid waste—particularly glass and plastic—into road construction materials such as asphalt concrete, concrete mixtures, and soil stabilization agents. The authors identify key barriers to large-scale adoption, including inadequate waste sorting infrastructure and a lack of studies assessing environmental hazards across different climatic zones.
Each year, a large amount of solid municipal waste is generated globally. Most of this waste is brought to disposal sites, which takes land resources out of circulation, pollutes soils, groundwater, and atmospheric air, and has a negative impact on flora and fauna. Therefore, recycling of consumer waste becomes one of the most urgent issues of environmental protection and resource conservation. Road construction is a promising area of reuse of solid municipal waste. Glass and plastic waste make up about 17% of all waste generated in Russia. Meanwhile, glass and plastic waste are suitable for the production of materials with high physical and mechanical characteristics. In road construction, glass waste can be used as a filler in asphalt concrete mixtures, as a component of concrete mixtures, as a reinforcement and stabilization material for clay soils, as well as in the production of paints. Plastic waste can be used in asphalt concrete and concrete mixtures, for soil stabilization. Among the key issues preventing their effective and large-scale use are the lack of an effective system of separate collection and sorting, the absence of large-scale studies on the use of waste in different road climatic zones, as well as the need for studies to assess the potential environmental hazards of its use in road construction.