A Preliminary Laboratory Evaluation on the Use of Shredded Cigarette Filters as Stabilizing Fibers for Stone Mastic Asphalts

Piergiorgio Tataranni,Cesare Sangiorgi

doi:10.3390/app11125674

Abstract

Cigarette butts can be considered as one of the most common contemporary sources of waste, considering the large consumption of cigarettes all over the world. Despite the fact that different solutions have been developed and tested in the recent years aiming to recycle them, cigarette butts are currently landfilled and incinerated. Following the circular economy principles, the experimental application proposed in this paper is an exploratory investigation on the use of shredded cigarette filters as sustainable alternative to the addition of fibers into Stone Mastic Asphalts (SMAs). This represents the preliminary step for a wider research project, aiming to find a possible recycling solution for cigarette butts as fibers in bituminous materials. The use of fibers is a common and well-established solution for the production of high bitumen content mixtures. The fibers have a double function: acting, generally, as a stabilizing agent and, where possible, improving the mechanical performance of the bituminous mixtures. In the present research, two different SMAs were produced and tested aiming to analyze the effects given by the addition of the shredded cigarette filters. The first asphalt concrete, produced with traditional cellulose fibers was taken as a reference mixture, while the experimental mixture was produced with the shredded cigarette filters. The data highlight interesting and promising results for future development, making the use of waste cigarette filters a potential eco-friendly alternative to common cellulose fibers for SMAs.

Highlights

Sustainable and responsible development is probably the most important task for a modern society aware of the damage caused to the environment by the uncontrolled growth of the last 30 years
The test was carried out in compliance with the [39] standard. This test allows the amount of drain-down in a loose bituminous mixture to be determined, when this is held at high temperature, compared to the amount obtained during the mixture in-plant production, storage and transportation
It is very useful for high bitumen content mixtures, where the addition of fibers is required precisely to prevent the separation of bitumen from aggregates

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable and responsible development is probably the most important task for a modern society aware of the damage caused to the environment by the uncontrolled growth of the last 30 years. Cigarette butts (CBs) can be classified as one on the most common sources of waste, considering their large consumption all over the world [2]. According to the most recent estimates, around 1.2 million tons of cigarette butts are produced every year [3]. From an environmental point of view, the CBs represent a real problem considering the lack of disposal control and their slow degradation rate. As stated in the report “Tobacco and its Environmental Impact: an overview” from the World Health Organization, around 70% of CBs are released into the environment, generally discarded directly on the ground [6]. Recent studies verified that the slow process of degradation of CBs discarded on the ground could last up to 13 years [9]

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