Reclamation and recycling of plastic waste in road construction: Design of a bituminous mix from plastic waste

Abstract

The purpose of this work is the recovery and recycling of plastic waste as additives in asphalt concrete (AC) in order to make a comparison with the conventional mix. The plastic waste used in this study is recycled plastic bottles made of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The objectives also include the study of the effect of the addition of different percentages of shredded plastic on the properties of the asphalt mix and the comparison with the properties of the conventional mix. The results indicated that recycled plastics can be conveniently used as an additive for bituminous mixes to participate in the sustainable management of plastic waste and the improvement of the performance of the mix. After carrying out a comparative study between the classic mix and the mix modified with recycled plastic, we obtained an optimal bitumen content of 5.33 % to be mixed with an optimal quantity of plastic of 6 % to obtain a mix with better quality. Subsequently, we proposed to carry out a study trying to reduce the quantity of bitumen while maintaining the optimum quantity of plastic (6 %) in order to evaluate the percentage of bitumen that could be substituted with plastic to approach values obtained at the optimum at the level of conventional asphalt concrete. With 6 % of plastic, it is possible to reduce the optimal amount of bitumen from 5.33 % to 5 %, leading to a reduction in the cost per km of road.