Sakr Nancy, AbouZeid Mohamed
Construction Engineering Department, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 May 7;17(9):1282. doi: 10.3390/polym17091282.
This study underscores the importance of sustainable practices by exploring the utilization of recycled plastic within the global construction industry. Plastic recycling has emerged as a crucial strategy that aligns with environmental, social, and economic sustainability indicators. Currently, substantial volumes of plastic waste are either deposited in landfills or incinerated, neglecting the potential to harness its embodied energy and the energy consumed for producing virgin materials. A key advantage of plastic lies in its promising mechanical properties. Concrete mix design is fundamental to a wide range of construction applications, including brick walls, reinforced concrete slabs, and concrete pavements. Despite the adoption of recycled plastic in construction materials in various countries, its widespread implementation remains limited. This is primarily due to the scarcity of experimental research in this area and the absence of a robust waste management system. This research specifically investigates the reuse of two common types of plastic waste: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to mitigate plastic waste accumulation in landfills and enhance the performance of construction materials. The study investigates the use of recycled HDPE and PET as a replacement for coarse aggregates in concrete pavement mixtures. While recycled PET is more prevalent in concrete applications, recycled HDPE has demonstrated exceptional efficiency and durability. The recycling method used in this research is the mechanical recycling method due to its superior effectiveness in comparison with other methodologies. This research assesses the performance of recycled PET and HDPE in concrete pavement, aiming to diminish non-renewable energy consumption by 15-20%, curtail the carbon footprint by 15-30%, and decrease plastic waste in landfills by 20-30% compared to conventional concrete.
本研究通过探讨全球建筑业中再生塑料的利用情况，强调了可持续发展实践的重要性。塑料回收已成为一项关键战略，符合环境、社会和经济可持续性指标。目前，大量塑料垃圾要么被填埋，要么被焚烧，忽视了利用其蕴含能量以及生产原生材料所消耗能量的潜力。塑料的一个关键优势在于其良好的机械性能。混凝土配合比设计对于包括砖墙、钢筋混凝土板和混凝土路面在内的广泛建筑应用至关重要。尽管各国在建筑材料中采用了再生塑料，但其广泛应用仍然有限。这主要是由于该领域缺乏实验研究以及缺乏完善的废物管理系统。本研究具体调查了两种常见塑料垃圾的再利用：聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯（PET）和高密度聚乙烯（HDPE），以减少垃圾填埋场中的塑料垃圾堆积，并提高建筑材料的性能。该研究调查了使用再生HDPE和PET替代混凝土路面混合物中的粗集料。虽然再生PET在混凝土应用中更为普遍，但再生HDPE已证明具有卓越的效率和耐久性。本研究采用的回收方法是机械回收法，因为与其他方法相比，它具有更高的有效性。本研究评估了再生PET和HDPE在混凝土路面中的性能，旨在与传统混凝土相比，将不可再生能源消耗减少15% - 20%，将碳足迹减少15% - 30%，并将垃圾填埋场中的塑料垃圾减少20% - 30%。
