Stabilization of soil with waste plastic bottles

Abstract

Some soils cannot withstand heavy loads due to significantly low California Bearing Ratio and shear strength. So, to reduce this problem treatment of soil is needed to be done using different stabilizers like furnace slag, fly ash, limestone fines, bitumen, plastic waste etc. Itis defined as the process for improving the properties of the soil either providing physical or chemical treatments and by blending and mixing of some other materials with the soil. It helps in controlling the shrink-swell properties of soil and also improves the shear strength properties and the capacity of soil to support the loads. This paper is aimed at providing soil stabilization using the waste plastic. The main motive of this research is to evaluate the result of incorporating waste plastic bottles on the geotechnical properties of soil. Various percentages of waste plastic bottles (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0%) added in the soil sample and sequel the engineering properties of soil. For this, various laboratory tests were conducted on soil samples like Unconfined Compressive Strength, California Bearing Ratio, and Proctor Test etc. and compared with the soil samples without any plastic waste. The outcome of the study showed that addition of the waste plastic bottles have positive effect on the soil properties which promotes the re-use of waste plastic from industry in an economical and environmentally friendly way and it will also help with the disposal problem of these plastic wastes on some extend.