Increasing depletion of material resources and concern for the environment has led to the great quest for degradable and environmentally sustainable material in various industries in recent years. Application of Waste Vegetable oils as a renewable and biodegradable binder material was explored in this work. Block samples were prepared with 10% liquid binder of vegetable oil, compacted with 75 impact blows and thermally cured in a conventional oven at temperature ranges of 160-200°C. This study explores the effectiveness of waste cooking oil as a novel binder in the production of building block, called WasteVege block. Important parameters such as optimum binder content, optimum curing temperature, and optimum curing age were established. The mechanical and physical properties of the product were examined, the result shows that compressive strength in ranges of 5 - 34 MPa was achieved, initial rate of absorption (IRA), water absorption, efflorescence, and wet/dry durability of the product exhibit acceptable values within the threshold of required standards.

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Cracking is very common problem in cement mortar. Many past research has explored the prospect of using crumb rubber (CR) to overcome this issue. Different sizes of CR have been tested to measure its effect on the pore structure and mechanical strengths of cement mortar. Hence, this study has further modified the crumb rubber mortar mix by adding silica fume and synthetic fiber to improve its mechanical properties. The experimental results suggested that the optimum silica fume replacement of cement content was 5%. Hence, for the subsequent experiment with a fixed 5%silica fume replacement, the highest compressive strength of 26 MPa was achieved with 5% crumb rubber replacement. Finally, additional 0.1% of synthetic fiber added the modified crumb rubber mix to reduce the mix brittleness has produced a desirable compressive strength close to the control specimen which was significantly higher than the minimum threshold required by the standard. However, the water content ratio for the modified mortar mix should be further investigated as the present modified crumb rubber mix has lower workability. It is envisaged that the modified crumb rubber mortar mix has a sound potential to mitigate shrinkage cracking in cement mortar.