Waste plastic fiber as stabilizer in sub-base sand layer for road construction project

Abstract

Pollution dilemma due to plastic bottle waste disposal and buildup is a growing and persistent problem in Malaysia. Clearly, innovate use of such wastes through recycling application in engineering must be found. This research was aimed to utilize waste plastic fiber in problematic road construction project that can be both economical and environmentally friendly. Additionally, it has the potency to increase the mechanical strength of commercial sand through the CBR parameter of the road pavement sub-grades. The sand usually possesses low CBR value which on its own may not be entirely suitable for the road construction works unless additive or stabilizer was added. In this study, the specimen used as additive to the sand involved 5 mm wide - 10 mm wide plastic fiber which was obtained from shredded waste plastic bottles. There were several percentage of waste plastic fibers that had considered in the research apart from the control specimen namely at 0 %, 0.1% and 0.5% in conjunction with 5 % cement and water at optimum moisture content level. Several laboratory tests had been prescribed namely characterization tests, compressibility test and CBR test. The result shows that as the percentage of waste plastic fiber increased, the CBR value also increased indicating positive relationship between the two variables.