Reusing Disposable Low- Density Polyethylene Waste Plastics for Flexible Paver Tile Construction for Outdoor Application

Abstract

Abstract Plastic waste poses serious environmental problems as it is non-biodegradable and consists of several toxic chemicals that can pollute the environment. The use of this waste as a substitute material is gaining interest due to its environmental friendliness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and characterize paver tiles from sand and waste plastics. First, waste plastic is collected, identified, grinded, and melted at temperature of 170°C. The sample sand was sieved to size of less than 0.75mm and mixed with plastic in specified proportion, then molded. Paving tiles were developed using hydraulic press with process parameters of plastic percentage from 10% to 40%, pressure from 1MPa to 5MPa and pressing time from 2 to 8minutes. Individual and interaction effects of 3 process parameters on physico-mechanical properties like water absorption(WA), flexural strength(FS) and compressive strength(CS) were investigated and analyzed using BBD and Design -Expert13 software with p-values of 5%. The result showed that the optimum point was obtained at 25% of waste plastic, time of 5minutes and pressure of 3MPa, resulting in maximum FS of 3.689MPa and CS of 4.141MPa, and overall average WA of Paver was 0.322%. Therefore, the developed tiles have better WA, FS and CS that meet the desired standard. From this finding, it can be concluded that reusing LDPE waste plastic with sand in the production of tiles is possible, and used for various outdoor applications. Therefore, making pavement tiles by reusing waste plastic is a promising option to protect our environment from pollution.