Technological Characterization of PET-Polyethylene Terephthalate-Added Soil-Cement Bricks.

Tulane Rodrigues Da Silva,Afonso Rangel Garcez De Azevedo,Daiane Cecchin,Jonas Alexandre,Izabella Valadão,Markssuel Teixeira Marvila,Sergio Neves Monteiro,Flavio Castro Da Silva,Fabio Garcia Filho,Murali Gunasekaran

doi:10.3390/ma14175035

Tulane Rodrigues Da Silva, Afonso Rangel Garcez De Azevedo + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14175035

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Abstract

The ever-growing consumption and improper disposal of non-biodegradable plastic wastes is bringing worrisome perspectives on the lack of suitable environmentally correct solutions. Consequently, an increasing interest in the circular economy and sustainable techniques is being raised regarding the management of these wastes. The present work proposes an eco-friendly solution for the huge amount of discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes by addition into soil-cement bricks. Room temperature molded 300 × 150 × 70 mm bricks were fabricated with mixtures of clay soil and ordinary Portland cement added with up to 30 wt.% of PET waste particles. Granulometric analysis of soil indicated it as sandy and adequate for brick fabrication. As for the PET particles, they can be considered non-plastic and sandy. The Atterberg consistency limits indicated that addition of 20 wt.% PET waste gives the highest plasticity limit of 17.3%; moreover, with PET waste addition there was an increase in the optimum moisture content for the compaction and decrease in specific weight. Standard tests showed an increase in compressive strength from 0.83 MPa for the plain soil-cement to 1.80 MPa for the 20 wt.% PET-added bricks. As for water absorption, all bricks displayed values between 15% and 16% that attended the standards and might be considered an alternative for non-structural applications, such as wall closures in building construction.

Highlights

The scarcity of natural resources and the generation of solid wastes without adequate disposal is of worldwide concern, which makes their reuse feasible in the civil construction sector, besides encouraging sustainable development and a circular economy [1,2,3,4]
The solid waste problem is of concern mainly in urbanized regions and developing countries where collection and disposal services have difficulties dealing with increasing amounts of waste [2]
The results showed that the compressive strength of the soil-cement bricks decreased with the addition of quartzite waste

Summary

Introduction

The scarcity of natural resources and the generation of solid wastes without adequate disposal is of worldwide concern, which makes their reuse feasible in the civil construction sector, besides encouraging sustainable development and a circular economy [1,2,3,4]. The solid waste problem is of concern mainly in urbanized regions and developing countries where collection and disposal services have difficulties dealing with increasing amounts of waste [2]. Waste is either disposed in open, uncontrolled dumps, accounting for. Global plastic production is growing rapidly and by 2030 the world may produce about 619 million tons of plastic per year [6]. The current scenario requires a more sustainable route for the recycling of this waste, which if not realized will increase the environmental imbalance due to its non-biodegradability in nature [8,9]

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