“Experimental investigation of concrete uti...

“Experimental investigation of concrete utilizing plastic waste hdpe and ldpe as an replacement of aggregate in concrete”

Author Name : Prakash Noriya, Pankaj Dwivedi

ABSTRACT

Iraq industrial activities related to huge amounts of solid, non-biodegradable waste, waste low density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic being among the well-known. So in this study, the scarped LDPE food boxes were transformed into fine particles and used as a sand for cement mortar and concrete. LDPE wastes were utilized to alter 0 to 25% of fine aggregates in mortar mixtures and 0% to 30% in concrete mixes at an increment of 5%. Compressive strength and dry density were tested for all mortar and concrete specimens. In addition, splitting tensile strength and ultrasonic pulse speed were tested for specimens of concrete. Results show that mass, pulse speed of ultrasonic, splitting and compressive tensile strengths were lowered as the size of LDPE raised. The lowest value of dry density, compressive strength and splitting strength was 2240 kg/m3, 18.7 MPa and 1.68 MPa, respectively, for 15% replacement of sand by the LDPE waste in concrete specimens. Whilst, the value of ultrasonic pulse velocity of LDPE concrete mixtures tends to decline lower than the reference values, but it remains nearly to the stander concrete mixtures and can be classified as excellent quality concrete. The density and compressive strength were decreased by using LDPE waste in mortar mixes for all replacement ratios reaching 12% and 42% respectively for 25% substitute. The use of plastic is increasing day by day, although steps were taken to reduce its consumption. This creates substantial garbage every day which is much unhealthy. A healthy and sustainable reuse of plastics offers a host of advantages. The composition of waste is different in every country where plastic plays a major role in environmental pollution. Enormous amount of plastic waste has been generating every day globally. Accumulation of plastic in environment, improper handling, land filling and decomposing causes pollution which effects human habitat and wild life. As we know that a construction material should have more life span, so we can use plastic, since plastic is a versatile and long-lasting material. The main theme of this paper is to reduce environmental pollution by recycling the waste Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic bags and decrease plastic waste. In this paper the LDPE plastic bags are recycled and used as total replacement for cement to prepare plastic paver bricks. There will be no economic problems as waste plastic is used. Compressive strength, melting point and water absorption and environmental factors has been found out for the results to avoid the effects on environment. The results of the paper shows that LDPE plastic can be recycled which helps to reduce the environmental pollution and carries socioeconomic factors.

Keywords: concrete additive; concrete mixture; plastic waste; HDPE; plastic lamellar particle, Environmental Pollution, Economical, LDPE, Plastic paver bricks, Poly bags.