Reinforcing concrete with recycled plastic wastes

Abstract

Solid waste is one of the many factors that negatively affect the environment. The plastic is an important type of solid waste with a strong environmental impact, all types of plastic used in daily life becoming, sooner or later, waste. Therefore, increasing consumption of various types of plastic products is one of the most important challenges in environmental protection. From different perspectives, waste reuse is important because it helps to recycle in the production process, reduces environmental pollution, and helps sustain and conserve non–renewable natural resources. On another hand, many constructions require precise techniques and technologies that can utilize a number of new materials. Also, the lightweight building material industry is considered useful in promoting reused materials. In this context, the use of simple concrete and reinforced concrete is somewhat restricted by specific phenomena such as: cracking, fire resistance, shrinkage, shock resistance, wear resistance, durability, etc. For this reason, an improvement in the performance of the concrete can be obtained by adding in their mass of reinforcements dispersed in the form of fibres from different materials. The dispersed reinforced concrete results in the inclusion of a variable amount of discontinuous fibres in the concrete mass. These fibres can be of different types and sizes and have different properties. This type of reinforcements has become a major research subject in recent years. Therefore, using plastic waste in the materials industry is an environmental solution to minimize the proportion of landfills used in waste incineration. Reusing plastics as concrete additives could also redirect old water and soda bottles, the bulk of which would otherwise end up in a landfill. Research has focused on the impact of adding plastic material to fresh and hardened concrete. This study aims to investigate the use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes in concrete.