Advanced Materials Research Vol.

701 (2013) pp 265-269 Online: 2013-05-27

© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.701.265

Use of Plastic Waste (High Density Polyethylene) In Concrete Mixture as

Aggregate Replacement
Nur Liza Rahim1,a, Shamshinar Salehuddin1,b, Norlia Mohamad Ibrahim1,c
Roshazita Che Amat1,d and Mohd Faizal Ab Jalil 2,e
1
School Of Environmental Engineering, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 3, University Malaysia
Perlis, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
2
Perlis Department of Environment, Tingkat 2, Bangunan KWSP, Jalan Bukit Lagi, 01000 Kangar,
Perlis, Malaysia
a
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
d
[email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: Plastic Waste, Recycle Material in Concrete, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

Abstract. Rapid industrial development causes serious problem all over the world such as depletion
of natural aggregates and creates enormous amount of waste material from construction and
demolition activities. Quantities of polymer wastes also have been increased these recent years due
to the boost in industrialization and the rapid improvement in the standard of living. In Malaysia,
most of polymer wastes is abandoned and not recycled. This situation causes serious problems such
as wastage of natural resources and environmental pollution. Polymer products such as synthetic
fibers, plastics and rubber belong to petrochemical compound and not easily biodegradable even
after a long period. One of the ways to reduce this problem is to utilize waste materials in the
production of concrete. Use of these materials not only helps in getting them utilize in cement, sand,
aggregate, concrete and other construction materials, it helps in reducing the cost of concrete
manufacturing, but also has numerous indirect benefits such as reduction in land-fill cost, saving in
energy and protecting the environment from possible pollution effects. An experimental research is
made on the utilization of plastic waste, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) as coarse aggregates in
concrete with a percentage replacement of 10 %, 20 % and 30 %. The laboratory tests include
slump test, compressive strength and water absorption were conducted in this research. The samples
content 10 % of HDPE has better performance in term of strength.

Introduction

Production of solid waste in Malaysia is 1 kg/person per day. In average, approximately 26 million
people in the country produce 26 million kilos of solid waste every single day. Plastic waste is the
most common solid waste that generate in the country accounting for 7-12 percent by weight and
18-30 percent by volume of the total residential waste generated [1]. Increasing amount of by-
products which are used by municipal and industrial processes has become a major problem for the
future. The main aim of environmental protection agencies and governments is to find ways to
minimize the problems of disposal and health hazards of these by-products.
Plastic has become an inseparable and integral of our lives. Plastic have been used in packaging,
automotive and industrial application, medical delivery systems, artificial implants and other uses.
With so large and verifying application, plastic contributes to increasing of volume in the solid
waste stream. The waste plastic collected from solid wastes is contaminated, assorted mixture of a
variety of plastics. This make their identification, segregation and purification become very hard to
do. Advantages of using waste or recycled plastics are it will help on reducing the municipal solid
wastes being land filled and it became an alternative to pressure-treated lumber that leaches toxic
chemical into water. There is many type of waste and recycled plastic that been used in concrete
mix. The most common waste or recycled plastic is virgin polypropylene, recycled plastic (melted
process), recycled plastic (automobile shredded residue) and recycle plastic (shredded) [2].

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266 Key Engineering Materials III

The productive use of waste materials is one of the ways to alleviate some of the problems of
solid waste management. There are several benefits of using waste materials. It helps people save
and sustain industrial resources for which it is impossible to renew, as well as having an effect on
decreasing the environmental pollution. Because of the environmental and economic reasons,
currently there has been a growing trend for the use of the industrial wastes or the by-products as
supplementary materials or as an admixture in the production of composite cement and concrete.
Using industrial by-products in concrete will lead us to have sustainable concrete design and a
greener environment.

Materials and Methods

HDPE is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer, which belongs to the polyolefin group and is
manufactured through the polymerization of ethylene, with the help of catalysts. HDPE is one of the
most important plastics [3]. In 2007, the global HDPE market reached a volume of more than 30
million tons, whereby the packaging and construction industries were particularly responsible for
driving growth. HDPE is the polyethylene grade with the highest rigidity and the least amount of
flexibility. It is well suited for a wide range of applications, like trash canisters, and a multitude of
everyday household goods, such as small bottles and clothespins. This light-weight, non-toxic
material is easily recyclable and serves increasingly as an alternative for less environmentally
friendly substances. Commercial grade HDPE materials have subtle characteristic differences,
caused by variations in polymerization technologies, catalyst residues, molecular structures of the
polymer chain, and utilized additives. Understanding of these differences and use of the best
characteristics makes optimization for specific applications possible.

The main objective of this research is to utilize HDPE plastic as coarse aggregate for the
production of concrete. The materials used in this study are cement, sand, HDPE, aggregates and
water. All the material should be in good condition and quality before uniformly mix in the concrete
mixture. The type of cement used in this research is Ordinary Portland Cement. The binder also
called cement gel which sacrifices most part of the concrete’s properties [4]. Natural coarse
aggregate which is with maximum size of 20 mm and natural fine aggregate which is river sand
with size 4.75 mm and below are used in this research. The aggregate gives volume to the concrete
since this occupies maximum space in the total volume concrete. The aggregate firstly will run
sieves analysis for grading it. The aggregate was air dried in room temperature to obtain saturated
surface dry condition to ensure that water cement ratio is not affected.

HDPE is defined by a density of greater or equal to 0.941 g/cm3. HDPE has a low degree of
branching and thus stronger intermolecular forces and tensile strength [5]. HDPE is a very common
plastic. It is used in a variety of applications. Plastic toys, liquid containers, milk and cream bottles,
detergent and cleaner bottle and thousands of consumer goods are made out of HDPE. Fig. 1 shows
the bottles that have been cut then sieved to get the passing size between 4.75 mm to 20 mm. The
dry materials such as cement, sand, HDPE and aggregate were mixed until the entire constituent
mix uniformly. The water were gradually added and mixed. Each specimen is produced by using
the same method, only the proportion of replacement materials were difference. The ratio 1:2:4
were used in concrete mixture which 1 for cement, 2 for sand and 4 for aggregate with the water-
cement ratio of 0.55 by mass. Concrete is produced with replacement of 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% of
HDPE plastic as coarse aggregate. 45 of cubes concrete size 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm each
were cast in accordance to relevant standard as shown in Fig. 2.
 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 701 267

Figure 1 High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Figure 2 Concrete De-moulding After 24 Hour

Tests conducted on these concretes include slump test, compressive strength and water
absorption. Tests were conducted at the age of 7, 14 and 28 days and the results at each testing age
are reported as an average. The molds were coated with mineral oil to ensure that no water escaped
during filling and to prevent adhesion of concrete. Concrete casting was accomplished in three
layers of 33.33 mm each. Each layer was compacted using a vibrating table for 1–15 min until no
air bubbles emerged from the surface of the concrete mold. The sample were dried for 24 hour, the
sample was removed from the molds and immediately submerged in fresh clean water for curing in
the specific time and ready for testing [6]. The flow of the methodology is shown in Fig. 3.

Results and Discussion

Concrete test is conducted to determine the characteristics and behavior of the concrete. The
compressive strength is measured by breaking cube concrete specimen in a compression testing
machine. In concrete, strength related to the stress required causing failure and it is defined as the
maximum stress the concrete sample can withstand [7]. The compressive strength is calculated from
the failure load divided by the cross-sectional area resisting the load. The data as shown in the
Fig. 4 reveal that, at all ages the strength of control concrete were higher than the corresponding
concrete containing HDPE plastic. The strength of concrete is decreasing linearly with the
increasing of HDPE plastic volume in the concrete mixture.

From the result, the control concrete (0% HDPE) has exceeded the target strength of 20 N/mm2
at 14 days and still gains extra strength as it reaches age of 28 days. The compressive strength for
samples content 10% of HDPE plastic is lower than the control but still acceptable because it reach
the target strength of 20% at the end period of curing, same for the sample content 20% of HDPE.
For the samples content 30% of HDPE, the development of their strength are same as 10% and 20%
but it does not reach the target strength at age 28 days.

The results of the slump test of concrete containing difference proportion of HDPE are shown in
Table 1. Referring to the table below, the slump value is increase with the increasing of the HDPE
ratio. That means the HDPE will reduce the workability of the concrete when replaced in higher
percentage such as 30 % of aggregate weight. The values of slump are 10.0 mm, 12.7 mm, and 15.3
mm for 10 %, 20 %, and 30 % of HDPE, respectively. This result can be attributed to the fact that
some particles are angular and others have non-uniform shapes resulting in less fluidity. In addition,
the HDPE substituent that used in this research is in solid form, so the solid particles which fill up
the voids in the concrete will affect the concrete mix slump.
268 Key Engineering Materials III

Recognize Plastic Waste from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

HDPE are cut/crashed into small pieces

Sieving by using the sieve machine (4.75 mm to 20 mm)

Mix design for 0%, 10%, 20 % and 30% of HDPE

Compression test

Optimized crushed HDPE content in concrete

Figure 3 Procedure of making PLASCRETE

Compressive Strength VS Curing Period

30
Compressive Strength (MPa)

25

20

15

10

0
7 Days 14 Days 28 Days
10 % of HDPE 18.964 22.706 26.617
20 % of HDPE 14.161 18.298 22.997
30 % of HDPE 10.835 14.037 18.244
Control 20.236 25.482 28.402
Figure 4 Graph Compressive Strength VS Curing Period

Table 1 Result of Slump Test

Percentage of HDPE 0% 10% 20% 30%
Slump (mm) 10 12.7 15.3 18
 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 701 269

The drop in compressive strength due to the addition of HDPE as aggregates may be attributed
to lower bond between the cement paste and HDPE in concrete. The higher compressive strength
means the good bond between materials in concrete. Less HDPE volume in concrete give good
bond between materials in concrete than more HDPE. This is because HDPE has a smooth and
shiny surface that is difficult to bind with other materials in concrete. This show that it is better to
substitute the HDPE plastic substituent in a lower quantity to ensure the concrete can achieve higher
strength.

Conclusions

HDPE aggregates can be used successfully to replace conventional aggregates in concrete.

Laboratory testing showed that the 28-day compressive strength of concrete containing 10% and
20% by volume of aggregate ranged from 22.997 to 26.617 Mpa. The compressive strength of
concrete containing HDPE aggregate is retained more or less in comparison with controlled
concrete samples. However strength noticeably decreased when the HDPE proportion was more
than 20%. The drop in compressive strength due to the addition of HDPE aggregates may be
attributed to lower bond between the cement paste and HDPE aggregates and to the low strength of
plastic. 20% of HDPE aggregate can be incorporated as coarse aggregate replacement in concrete
without any long term detrimental effects and with acceptable strength development properties.

References

[1] Safan, Agarwal, Solid Wate Recycling, Malaysian Perspective. Frost and Sulivan Market
Insight (2007).
[2] Siddique. R. Waste Materials and By-Product in Concrete, Spinger (2008).
[3] Mandelkern L., Crystallization of Polymers, McGraw Hill, New York (1964).
[4] Wiley J. & Son, Concrete Manual (8th edition), New York, London, A Wiley-Interscience
Publication (1981).
[5] Harper, Charles A., Edward M. Petrie, Plastics Materials and Processes, John Wiley & Sons.
(2003).
[6] Jabatan Kerja Raya Malaysia, Standard Specification for Building Works. Jabatan Kerja Raya
Malaysia. D1-D39 (2005).
[7] Mehta P.K and Monteiro P.J.M, Concrete Microstructure, properties and Materials (2006).
Key Engineering Materials III
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.701

Use of Plastic Waste (High Density Polyethylene) in Concrete Mixture as Aggregate Replacement
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.701.265