Utilization of Plastic Waste in Foundry Sand Bricks

Abstract

Disposal of large quantity of plastic bottle has emerged as an important environmental challenge, and its recycling is facing a big problem due to non-degradable nature. Due to plastic does not decompose biologically, the amount of plastic waste in our surroundings is steadily increasing. The proposed sand bricks which is made up by adding plastic bottle waste in crush form in sand bricks may help to reuse the plastic bottle waste as one of the additives material of bricks, and to help the disposal problem of plastic waste. The properties of sand bricks which contain varying percentages of plastic were tested for compressive strength, water absorption and efflorescence. It shows that an appreciable improvement in the performance of bricks can be achieved by introducing crush type of plastic waste into sand bricks. In view of utilization of plastic waste material for developing sustainable construction material, the present paper reviews plastic waste materials in different compositions of 0% to 15% that were added to the raw material to develop plastic waste sand bricks. The compression strength of the bricks is reviewed and recommendations are suggested as the outcome of the study. It was found that the reduction in compressive strength, due to replacement of sand by waste plastic bottle, is minimal and can be enhanced by addition of super plasticizer. The water absorption and efflorescence however showed excellent performance.