Recycling of urban glass waste in ceramic floor tiles toward sustainability

Abstract

Around 21.7 million tons of urban solid waste are produced in North Africa and the Middle East. The amount of glass waste produced is 0.87 million tons. The amount of urban glass waste (UGW) produced in Egypt was 2280.8 tons per day. This paper aims to study the effect of partial replacement of UGW in the production of ceramic floor tiles to save the production cost and raw materials. The characteristics of the basic raw mixture of floor tiles and UGW were studied. The waste was collected, crushed and ground to be blended with the basic mixture in different percentages that ranged from 0 to 35%. The specimens were molded under uniaxial pressure followed by drying and firing at temperatures ranging from 1050 to 1120 °C. The characteristics of the fired specimens have been determined and compared with the International Standard Limits. The results showed that specimens containing waste ranging from 25% to 35%, fired at 1100 °C with a soaking time of 15 min have a modulus of rupture of 18.9 to 19.7 MPa, breaking strength of 600 to 613N and water absorption of 9.78% to 8.2% respectively that fulfilled the lowest requirements for the ISO 13006 for dry pressed tiles Group BIIb.