Pozzolanic Assessment of Recycled Waste Glass for Use as a Supplementary Cementitious Material

Abstract

The manufacture of Portland cement (PC) emits a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. Therefore, the partial replacement of PC by supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) possessing pozzolanic properties is considered a viable strategy to reduce its environmental impact. Recently, waste glass (WG) has been explored as a potential SCM. However, due to the wide variety of glass types and their differing physical and chemical properties, not all WG can be universally considered suitable for this purpose; therefore, this study investigates the use of recycled WG as an SCM for the partial replacement of PC. Two types of WG were evaluated: green waste glass from wide bottles (GWG) and laboratory waste glass (LWG), and their performance was compared to that of fly ash (FA). The physical, mechanical, and pozzolanic properties of the materials were assessed. Results show that both types of WG exhibit particle size distributions comparable to PC and have contents of SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 exceeding 70%. Chemical, mineralogical, and pozzolanic analyses revealed that both GWG and LWG presented higher pozzolanic activity than FA, particularly at later ages. Notably, LWG demonstrated the most significant contribution to mechanical strength development. These findings suggest that recycled waste glass, especially LWG, can serve as a viable and sustainable SCM, contributing to the reduction of the environmental footprint associated with Portland cement production.