Evaluation of using waste of bottles in concrete as sustainable construction

Abstract EN

In the current study attention was focused on effects of using wastes of plastic and glass of juices and soft drink bottles in concrete, and the optimum percent's of the wastes were detected giving the best properties of concrete.

Total number of concrete mixes was (12), which have different wastes additions details.

These mixes included: three mixes have plastic fibers (1, 2, 3)% by cement weight, three mixes have glass with ratios of (10, 15, 20)% as a replacement of sand volume, three mixes have pieces of plastic bottle caps with ratios of (15, 20, 25)% as a replacement of gravel volume .The mix that has the optimum properties in these three groups, was selected to merge these types of wastes in one mix.

Therefore, two additional mixes were prepared; one mix contains addition of 2% plastic fibers and 15% glass; and the other mix contains 20% plastic bottle caps and 15% glass, in addition to the reference mix without any waste additions.

The achieved tests comprise; compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, flexural strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, density, absorption and fire resistance.

Tests results give good indications about using these waste in concrete; when two types of wastes are added to the mixes (plastic fiber with glass C11 or pieces of bottle caps and glass C12) the compressive strength is improved noticeably, the residual compressive strength is about (75% and 83%) with total ratio of wastes about 35% at age of 7 and 28 days, respectively, in mix C12, and (76 .7% and 70.5%) with total ratio of wastes about 17% at age of 7 and28 days, respectively, in mix C11