Recycled Plastics as Coarse Aggregate for Structural Concrete

The use of plastic is increasing day by day, although steps were taken to reduce its consumption. This creates substantial garbage every day which is much unhealthy. A healthy and sustainable reuse of plastics offers a host of advantages. The suitability of recycled plastics as coarse aggregate in concrete and its advantages are discussed here. The initial questions arising of the bond strength and the heat of hydration regarding plastic aggregate were solved. Tests were conducted to determine the properties of plastic aggregate such as density, specific gravity and aggregate crushing value. As 100% replacement of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) with plastic coarse aggregate (PCA) is not feasible, partial replacement at various percentage were examined [8], [9]. The percentage substitution that gave higher compressive strength was used for determining the other properties such as modulus of elasticity, split tensile strength and flexural strength. Higher compressive strength was found with 20% NCA replaced concrete. Heat resisting behavior of the PCA concrete is also discussed in this study.