Waste Plastic as Fiber Reinforcement in Pavement Quality Concrete

The rigid pavements have been the most adopted all weather pavements in India in recent years as all the ingredients are available locally, and the concrete pavements can withstand high temperatures and the effects of rain more effectively than the bituminous pavements. The detrimental effect of plastic on the environment is well-established and a known fact. The non-biodegradable plastic is causing havoc with their disposal. Though some of the PET bottles are being recycled, studies show that more than 60% of them end up as waste. Even in the recycling process, many harmful gases are being emitted and a lot of energy is being consumed. The use of fibers such as steel, polypropylene, synthetic, etc., is common practice in concrete these days. The aim of the present project was to find out the effect of waste PET bottles when used as fiber reinforcement in pavement concrete. Here, an attempt was made to use waste PET bottles cut into long fibers as fiber reinforcement in the pavement concrete instead of imported, costly fibers. A regular pavement concrete design of M-30 grade was carried out, and cubes and beam specimens were cast to determine the compressive and flexural strengths, respectively. The same mix design was used, and the commercial fibers were added at 1.2% by weight of cement. In the other two mixes, 1.2 and 2.5% of PET fibers were used, and specimens were cast. The test results of each trial were compared with the conventional mix. There was no considerable increase in compression strength of concrete with PET fibers when compared with the control mix; however, about a 5% increase in flexural strength was observed.