Sustainable use of plastic waste on laterite soil as stabilizer

Abstract

Plastic has been widely used in many fields due to its lightweight, strength, durability, and capable of being moulded in any form. However, plastic pollution has become one of the major threats to the world since plastic waste is non-biodegradable and composed of higher toxic pollutants that may harm the environment significantly. Therefore, recycle and reuse of plastic waste can be one effective way to reduce the risk of plastic pollution. With the rapid growth of cities, one of the main constraints in the construction industry is the availability of land with allowable soil settlement and sufficient bearing capacity. Therefore, the engineers need to find alternative solutions to make use of the land area even though with weak soil properties. One of the effective and low-cost ways is to reinforce the soil strength using plastic waste. This research was conducted to study the effect of using plastic waste as soil reinforcement in laterite soil. Variations in compaction characteristics and unconfined compressive strength of laterite soil for different plastic waste content and dimension were investigated. The results obtained were compared with untreated laterite soil. The optimum percentage and dimension of plastic waste needed to increase the soil strength were obtained from the results. The soil strength reinforced with plastic waste can be reduced as the percentage and dimension of plastic waste exceed certain proportions and sizes.