A Study on CBR Behaviour of Waste Pet Strip Reinforced Stone Dust

Abstract

With rapid urban and industrial developments, large quantities of wastes are being generated worldwide. Waste materials like stone dust is abundantly available to the extent of million tons per annum causing landfill disposal problem and health and environmental hazards. Further, most of the developed/developing countries all over the world have huge resources of domestic wastes such as waste plastics which are causing disposal problems that are both financially and environmentally expansive. Geotechnical characterization of these wastes is likely to provide economically viable and environment friendly solutions for their gainful utilization and thereby solving the problem of their disposal to a great extent. Waste management and waste reduction can be achieved through recycling or re-use. Utilization of these wastes in geotechnical applications is likely to provide viable, environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions. An experimental study was carried out to demonstrate the potential of using stone dust reinforced with reclaimed PET (polyethylene terephthalate) strips. PET strips cut into three different lengths (10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm) were used in this study. The effect of strip content (0.25%–4%) and strip length on the compaction characteristics, CBR and subgrade modulus of reinforced stone dust were investigated. The study reveals that addition of waste PET strips to stone dust results in appreciable increase in CBR and subgrade modulus. The reinforcement benefit increases with increase in strip content and strip length and there exists an optimum value for both the strip content and the strip length at which the reinforcement benefits are optimum. The proposed materials can be used to advantage in embankment/road construction leading to safe and economical disposal of these waste materials in an environment friendly manner. Further research is recommended to study the cost economics of the use of these waste materials for low cost embankment/road construction.