Investigation on the Possibility of using Concrete Containing Plastic Waste as Aggregates for Pavement Construction

Increasingly plastics become the material of choice by product designers because they provide useful properties and for this reason the worldwide production of plastics is growing year after year. At the European level the reference concerning the recycling and reuse of waste plastics obliges Member States to recover and recycle at certain degrees. Concrete, the most widely used material, is a potentially very promising market for recycled plastics. The present research deals with the study of the use of thermoplastic wastes as a part of the conventional aggregates in concrete. Two kinds of widely used thermoplastic polymers were studied, polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). Both polymers were industrial waste. Mixes containing PP or HDPE at percentages 0, 7, 12 and 20% by volume of aggregates were made. Flexural and compressive strength as well as dynamic and static modulus of elasticity were determined at 7 and 28 days. The results show a decrease in both strength and modulus of elasticity and suggest that PP and HDPE can be used as concrete aggregates for certain structural applications and concrete pavements are proposed as one of them.