Usage of Plastic in Manufacturing of Solid Bricks along with M-sand and Bitumen

Abstract

Plastic, one of the greatest materials invented by mankind. Since the development of plastic earlier this century, it has become a popular material used in different ways. They are cheap, durable and easy to make. In today’s world, plastic is used to make or wrap many items, we buy or use. But the main problem arises when we no longer want those items and we have to discard them. As the production cost of plastic is very less, it is readily available in the market. The cheapness means plastic gets discarded easily, its long life means it doesn’t decompose easily and requires high ultraviolet ray to break down. In the 21st century, one of the major environmental issues is arising due to the plastic waste. Plastic is non-biodegradable hence the discarded plastics are affecting our environment gravely. Due to the huge popularity of plastic as a production material, decrease in plastic usage policies isn’t encouraged by manufacturing companies, rather it is estimated that the plastic usage rate going to be double for the next 10 years. As we are still looking for viable solutions to this plastic waste management problem, this study is solely focused on the recycling of discarded plastic bottles in building materials. The main purpose of this particular study is to introduce plastic waste in brick production and explore the performance of plastic bricks, made out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and M-Sand. The bricks were casted with plastic to M-sand in different proportion and bitumen was used as a binder material. The experimental outcomes were compared with locally available clay bricks.