EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON UTILIZATION OF WASTE PLASTIC AS AGGREGATE IN CEMENT MORTAR

Solid waste management is one of the major environmental concerns in our country now a days. The present study covers the use or recycled plastics as replacement of coarse aggregates in concrete. The main aim of the study is to investigate the change in mechanical properties of concrete with the addition of plastics in concrete. Along with the mechanical properties, thermal characteristics of the resultant concrete is also studied It is found that the use of plastic aggregates results in the formation of lightweight concrete. The compressive, as well as tensile strength of concrete reduces with the introduction of plastics. The most important change brought about by the use of plastics is that the thermal conductivity of concrete is reduced by using plastics in concrete. Therefore, it can be said that recycled plastics can be used for thermal insulation of buildings. Research concerning the use of by - products to augment the properties of concrete has been going on for many years. In the recent decades, the efforts have been made to use industry by - products such as fly ash, silica fume, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), glass cullet, etc., in civil constructions. The potential ap plications of industry by - products in concrete are as partial aggregate replacement or as partial cement replacement, depending on their chemical composition and grain size. The use of these materials in concrete comes from the environmental constraints in the safe disposal of these products. One of the new waste materials used in the concrete industry is recycled plastic. For solving the disposal of large amount of recycled plastic material, reuse of plastic in Concrete industry is considered as the most feasible application. Recycled plastic can be used as coarse aggregate in concrete. However, it is important to underline that re - using of wastes is not yet economicallyadvantageous, due to the high costs of transport and its effect on the total costs of p roduction. Moreover, it is important not to neglect other costs, directly referable to the kind of wastes, due, in particular, to the need of measuring gas emission, during firing, and the presence of toxic and polluting elements.