Plastic Wastes as Partial Replacement of Conventional Natural Aggregates

Concrete is the most widely used construction material in today's world. It is very difficult to point out another material of construction as versatile as concrete. It is a material of choice where strength, durability, permanence, impermeability, fire resistance and abrasion resistance are required. It is so closely associated now with every human activity that it touches every human being in day today living. The basic materials required for producing concrete include cement, fine aggregate (sand), coarse aggregate (broken stone or boulders) and water. Sand and coarse aggregate required for making concrete are obtained from earth's crust, mainly from river basins. The extraction of aggregates from rivers has led to deterioration of river basins, large scale soil erosions, depletion of water table, decrease in sediment supply and has also led to increase in pollution and changes in pH level. Concrete being a crucial building material is utilized all over the world in billions of tones annually and the consumption is increasing at a faster rate with every passing year. The requirement of aggregates is also increasing with increase in the production of concrete. This large-scale extraction of aggregates will ultimately lead to irreparable damages to the earth's natural resources. So, we need to search for new construction materials. A no. of innovative ideas has been put forward by many researchers suggesting the potential replacements of conventional concrete constituents, particularly coarse and fine aggregates. Plastic wastes in the form of powder as well as solid pieces have also been suggested as potential replacements of conventional sand and stone aggregate. Use of plastic wastes will not only help in reducing the adverse effects if plastic pollution but will also help in producing economical and light weight concrete. In my experimental work, I am going to prepare concrete by replacing certain percentage of fine and coarse aggregate by plastic waste powder and solid plastic waste pieces respectively and find its effects on physical properties as well as the decrease in pollution due plastic wastes and economic characteristics of concrete. Javeed Ahmad Dar | Zeeshan Khan"Plastic Wastes as Partial Replacement of Conventional Natural Aggregates" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-4 , June 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd14385.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/civil-engineering/14385/plastic-wastes-as-partial-replacement-of-conventional-natural-aggregates/javeed-ahmad-dar