UTILIZATION OF WASTE PLASTIC BOTTLES AS FINE AGGREGATE IN CONCRETE

Abstract

As human communities grow larger and larger, the problem of waste management becomes one of urgent need that should be solved. Recycling and reusing of the waste materials is an efficient measure in management of the waste materials, which in addition to preventing the pollution, it conserves natural resources. Plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), constitutes a major fraction of household wastes. They are classified as non- biodegradable waste materials which are harmful for public health. So making use of PET in concrete production can be useful method to get rid of plastics solid waste damage on environment.
In this research, effect of using waste PET that was converted to granules in concrete has been studied experimentally. Different proportion of sand ranging from 1% to 8%, were replaced by granulated plastic. The resulting concrete was compared with normal concrete without any addition of granulated plastic. Then the specimen were tested at 7 and 28 days after curing, and some engineering properties of the mixtures including slump test, fresh and dry density, compressive, and slip strength have been investigated. Analyzing experimental results of this work indicated that optimum dosage of waste bottles replacement is 2% as fine aggregate- substitution aggregate to get maximum compressive strength and slip strength.