Experimental characterization of mortar with recycled PET aggregate: Preliminary results

Plastic materials have been widely used since 1930s-1940s and, at the beginning, their capacity of low degradation was neglected, resulting in negative effect today. The main disposed methods of high volume of plastic wastes are landfill, recycling or composting and combustion. The conflicts between the high costs and relatively low effectiveness make landfill not ideal for the degradation; at the same time, air pollution and the by-products of combustion still need to be resolved with regards to combustion. Therefore, a sustainable and eco-friendly method of handling plastic waste is an immediate requirement. In literature, was found that one feasible application is to use plastic waste in construction material such as concrete and mortar, thus playing the role of the aggregate in the mix-design. Therefore, the main object of this paper is to study the influence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the mortar, considering workability and mechanical properties (in terms of flexural and compressive strength). During the experimental work, fine sand was substituted by same volume, namely 0, 5 and 10 % of PET in mortar and all the specimens were subjected to the mechanical tests at the curing time of 7 days and 28 days. The results showed that as the level of replacement increased, the flexural strength and compressive strength decreased, although with 10% PET the flexural strength showed a slightly increase. Flexural toughness factors were also evaluated and the experimental results showed that with increasing substitution level, the flexural toughness factor showed a slight increase