Recycling plastic waste to produce lightweight aggregates

Abstract

Production of lightweight aggregates is an alternative for recycling plastic waste. How-ever, in the consulted scientific literature, a lack of data about physical and mechanical characteristics of these aggregates was detected. In this paper, eight samples of plastic particles from local industries (Mendoza, Argentina) were obtained and characterized, and their productive processes were presented. Argentinian requirements to consider the samples as lightweight aggregates were also studied, concluding that only two of them met the standards. However, modifications in recycling processes, classification by sizes or mixing between different samples, could make all of them useable.