Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate
Plastic is a widely consumed material with a high decomposition time, occupying significant space in landfills and dumps. Thus, strategies to reuse plastic waste are imperative for environmental benefit. Plastic waste is a promising eco-friendly building material for cement-based composites due to i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Buildings |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/3/609 |
| _version_ | 1827306801505239040 |
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| author | Douglas Mol Resende José Maria Franco de Carvalho Bárbara Oliveira Paiva Gustavo dos Reis Gonçalves Lais Cristina Barbosa Costa Ricardo André Fiorotti Peixoto |
| author_facet | Douglas Mol Resende José Maria Franco de Carvalho Bárbara Oliveira Paiva Gustavo dos Reis Gonçalves Lais Cristina Barbosa Costa Ricardo André Fiorotti Peixoto |
| author_sort | Douglas Mol Resende |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Plastic is a widely consumed material with a high decomposition time, occupying significant space in landfills and dumps. Thus, strategies to reuse plastic waste are imperative for environmental benefit. Plastic waste is a promising eco-friendly building material for cement-based composites due to its reduced specific gravity and thermal conductivity. However, this waste reduces the composites’ mechanical strength. This work aims to produce and evaluate lightweight concretes made with only lightweight aggregates and mostly recycled plastic aggregates. Initially, an optimized dosage approach for lightweight concrete is presented. The mixture proportion of the lightweight concrete was based on the performance of mortars with the complete replacement of natural aggregate by recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) aggregates. The PET aggregates showed irregular shapes, impairing workability and providing lightweight concretes with around 18% water absorption and 21% void index. However, the concretes presented significantly low-unit weight, approximately 1200 kg/m<sup>3</sup>. This work presented a structural lightweight concrete (ACI 213-R) using only lightweight aggregates and mostly plastic waste aggregate, with a compressive strength of up to 17.6 MPa, a unit weight of 1282 kg/m<sup>3</sup>, and an efficiency factor of 12.3 MPa·cm<sup>3</sup>/g. The study shows that with an optimum dosage, reusing plastic waste in concrete is a viable alternative contributing to environmental sustainability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:28:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0037fbd9756c454da6f414a194cf52b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-5309 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:28:37Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Buildings |
| spelling | doaj.art-0037fbd9756c454da6f414a194cf52b12024-03-27T13:29:02ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092024-02-0114360910.3390/buildings14030609Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste AggregateDouglas Mol Resende0José Maria Franco de Carvalho1Bárbara Oliveira Paiva2Gustavo dos Reis Gonçalves3Lais Cristina Barbosa Costa4Ricardo André Fiorotti Peixoto5Laboratory of Materials for Civil Construction, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, BrazilLaboratory of Composite Materials, Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa 36570-900, BrazilLaboratory of Materials for Civil Construction, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, BrazilLaboratory of Carbon and Ceramic Materials, Department of Physics, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória 29075-910, BrazilDepartment of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Ceará, Russas 62900-000, BrazilLaboratory of Materials for Civil Construction, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, BrazilPlastic is a widely consumed material with a high decomposition time, occupying significant space in landfills and dumps. Thus, strategies to reuse plastic waste are imperative for environmental benefit. Plastic waste is a promising eco-friendly building material for cement-based composites due to its reduced specific gravity and thermal conductivity. However, this waste reduces the composites’ mechanical strength. This work aims to produce and evaluate lightweight concretes made with only lightweight aggregates and mostly recycled plastic aggregates. Initially, an optimized dosage approach for lightweight concrete is presented. The mixture proportion of the lightweight concrete was based on the performance of mortars with the complete replacement of natural aggregate by recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) aggregates. The PET aggregates showed irregular shapes, impairing workability and providing lightweight concretes with around 18% water absorption and 21% void index. However, the concretes presented significantly low-unit weight, approximately 1200 kg/m<sup>3</sup>. This work presented a structural lightweight concrete (ACI 213-R) using only lightweight aggregates and mostly plastic waste aggregate, with a compressive strength of up to 17.6 MPa, a unit weight of 1282 kg/m<sup>3</sup>, and an efficiency factor of 12.3 MPa·cm<sup>3</sup>/g. The study shows that with an optimum dosage, reusing plastic waste in concrete is a viable alternative contributing to environmental sustainability.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/3/609structural lightweight concretelightweight mortarsPET aggregaterecycled plastic aggregateplastic waste |
| spellingShingle | Douglas Mol Resende José Maria Franco de Carvalho Bárbara Oliveira Paiva Gustavo dos Reis Gonçalves Lais Cristina Barbosa Costa Ricardo André Fiorotti Peixoto Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate Buildings structural lightweight concrete lightweight mortars PET aggregate recycled plastic aggregate plastic waste |
| title | Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate |
| title_full | Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate |
| title_fullStr | Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate |
| title_short | Sustainable Structural Lightweight Concrete with Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste Aggregate |
| title_sort | sustainable structural lightweight concrete with recycled polyethylene terephthalate waste aggregate |
| topic | structural lightweight concrete lightweight mortars PET aggregate recycled plastic aggregate plastic waste |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/3/609 |
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