Stabilization of expansive clays using recycled glass

Abstract

Millions of tons of glass end up in landfills every year. This glass can cause puncturing of the geomembrane or clay liner which protects other chemicals from leaking into the soil and ultimately the groundwater supply. Glass is nearly 100% recyclable and can be substituted for up to 95% raw materials in new glassware. However, this reuse of glass is often limited by the color of the glass containers. Repurposing the glass by integrating it into roadbeds would allow all regular household glass to be recycled regardless of color. Glass is primarily made of silica sand which should strengthen the properties of expansive clays. This would be an alternative to using lime or fly ash to strengthen the roadbed. Atterberg limits and the standard proctor tests have been done with bentonite clay and with a mixture of bentonite clay and crushed glass. The addition of the glass shows positive results in minimizing the liquid limit, plastic limit, and optimum moisture content. Shearing results on the crushed glass by itself produced results similar to that of sand.