The Effects of Partial Replacement of Sand by Recycled Plastic on Concrete Properties

9 pages•Published: May 15, 2022

Amaal Al Shenawa, Metin Oguzmert and Isaiah Akinkunmi

Abstract

Plastic has become an essential part of our life. Unfortunately, it has a negative environmental impact due to its limited recycling rate. This study investigates the effect of replacing 10% of sand with recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in concrete and the effect of particle size of PET used in the concrete mix. The impact of these two factors on the physical and mechanical properties of concrete was examined. Two types of PET particle sizes, 2.36 mm (sieve #8) and 4.75 mm (sieve #4), were investigated. Concrete was cast to determine the behavior of fresh and hardened concrete in terms of workability, unit weight, and compressive strength. The experimental results showed improvement in all three of these critical characteristics of concrete. Replacing 10% of the sand with 4.75 mm PET resulted in better properties than other mixes used in the trials. We think that using a specific size of PET particles rather than a randomly selected PET size combination is the reason behind this improvement. This study proved that utilizing plastic waste in specific ratios and specific particle sizes within concrete mixes can be effectively used in industrial applications. This is a pilot study to explore this specific topic.

Keyphrases: compression, particle size, pet, unit weight, workability

In: Tom Leathem, Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud (editors). ASC2022. 58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference, vol 3, pages 82-90.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/q58v
	https://doi.org/10.29007/t1rs

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2022:Effects_Partial_Replacement_Sand,
  author    = {Amaal Al Shenawa and Metin Oguzmert and Isaiah Akinkunmi},
  title     = {The Effects of Partial Replacement of Sand by Recycled Plastic on Concrete Properties},
  booktitle = {ASC2022. 58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem and Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {3},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/q58v},
  doi       = {10.29007/t1rs},
  pages     = {82-90},
  year      = {2022}}

Download PDF Open PDF in browser