Reuse of Synthetic Plastic Fibres and Plastic Granules in Concrete

Abstract

The use of plastic is considerably increased in day-to-day life for supply of the materials, liquids, foods and other essentials daily products. These single use plastic is disposed off in very disorderly manner. Therefore, the disposal of plastic waste becomes a universal problem because of it is non-biodegradable, and availability of plastic waste in huge quantity in the various countries having considerable population. This plastic waste can be reduced by utilizing in the same or in other forms in day-to-day various activities and development of infrastructure like cement concrete roads, pavements and other low cost housing schemes, but it is realize that all the plastic waste material cannot be reutilized. Its partial utilization may also become the solution to reduce the impact on the environment and ecological problems. The cost of ingredient concrete materials is continuously increasing due to non availability, taxation, transportation and also the wastes of materials. Therefore, the plastic waste can be converted into synthetic fibres and granules and can be utilize in concrete as a partial replacement of sand. The main objective of this laboratory investigation is to reduce the impact of plastic waste on the environment by utilizing in infrastructure development. For laboratory investigation, synthetic fibres 1%, 2% and 3% of dry weight of sand is utilized to replace the sand and plastic granules 5%, 10% and 15% of dry weight of sand is utilized to replace the sand. The strength parameters of concrete are tested in the laboratory such as compressive strength, tensile strength and workability of concrete. The test result shows positive impact of utilization of plastic waste up to some extent.