Suitability of Partial Replacement of Pulverized Plastic as Fine Aggegate in Cement Concrete

Objectives: Disposal of plastic was a major problem in the present era, as the usage of plastics was growing day by day and it takes hundreds of year for plastic material to degrade. The effective ways to recycle and reuse of plastics are being formulated. Methods: Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Bags was taken into consideration as it was easily available and had low density than other type. The used plastic bags were collected, ground in to smaller components. Melted and pulverized in order to get granules of plastic of about 1 mm size. The density of the pulverized was found to be 920 Kg/m³ and its specific gravity was 0.89. Seive analysis were carried out and about 95% of the plastic bags were found to be in the range of 1-1.15 mm. 45 Nos of 100 × 100 × 100 mm cement concrete cubes of M20 mix were cast for 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% fine aggregate being replaced with pulverized plastic material. Volumetric proportioning was adopted instead of design mix since the low density of plastic bags material was too low. Workability test, mechanical properties were determined. Findings: The test results revealed that the compression strength of concrete at 28th days of conventional concrete is 23.56 N/mm². By partial replacement of 5% of Burned LDPE bags in concrete the 28th days increased by about 0.36 N/mm² when compared to conventional concrete. By partial replacement of 10% of burned LDPE bags in concrete the 28th days increased by about 1.02 N/mm² when compared to conventional concrete. By partial replacement of 15% of burned LDPE bags in concrete at 28th day increased by about 2.27 N/mm² for when compared to conventional concrete. By partial replacement of 20% of Burned LDPE bags in concrete the 28th days increased by about 1.16 N/mm² when compared to conventional concrete. Thus it is inferred that partial replacement of Burned LDPE bags up to 15% can be adopted. Novelty/Improvement: It is thereby suggested that utilization of this Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) bags in concrete will reduce the requirement for convectional fine aggregate thereby resulting in conservation of natural resources.