A Step towards Sustainable Concrete by Replacing Plastic Waste in Concrete: A Summary of its Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Plastics have become an essential part of our daily lives, and global plastic production has increased dramatically in the past 50 years. This has significantly increased the amount of plastic garbage produced. Researchers have recently been interested in using trash and recyclable plastics in concrete as an ecologically acceptable building material. Many publications have been published that describe the behaviour of concrete, containing waste and recovered plastic com ponents. However, information is scattered, and no one knows how plastic trash behaves as concrete materials. This research examines the use of plastic waste (PW) as aggregate or fibre in cement mortar and concrete manufacturing. The article reviewed the three most significant features of concrete: fresh properties, mechanical strength, and durability. PW and cement connections were also studied using microstructure analysis (scan electronic microscopy). The results showed that PW, as a fibre, enhanced mechanical performance, but PW, as a coarse aggregate, impaired concrete performance owing to poor bonding. The assessment also identified research needs to enhance the performance of PW-based concrete in the future.

Introduction

Concrete is made from cement, sand, coarse aggregate, water, and admixtures, with aggregates constituting 65–80% of its volume and greatly affecting its strength. Due to growing demand in construction (expected to increase by 59% by 2025), natural resource depletion and environmental issues are rising. To address this, researchers are exploring waste materials—especially plastic waste (PW)—as alternatives to natural aggregates. Plastic production, including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), has surged, creating environmental challenges.

This review focuses on using plastic waste in concrete, examining its effects on concrete properties like workability (slump flow), strength (compressive, tensile, flexural), and durability (water absorption, shrinkage, carbonation). Microstructure studies also assess bonding between plastic waste and cement paste.

Plastic waste typically has very low water absorption, which can improve concrete flow, but its physical properties vary widely (density ranges from 350 to 1315 kg/m³ depending on type). The study details a four-step process to convert e-waste plastics (like ABS) into plastic aggregates: washing, crushing into flakes, melting at ~200°C, cooling to form plastic rocks, and crushing into pebbles. The resulting plastic aggregates are irregular in shape and size, which increases friction and reduces concrete fluidity.

Conclusion

A comprehensive review of existing research on the performance of recycled waste plastic in concrete was conducted. The effects of recycled waste plastics, in the form of aggregate (fine or coarse) and fiber, on the fresh, mechanical, and durability properties of concrete were examined. The key conclusions are as follows: • Flowability of concrete decreased with the inclusion of plastic fibers due to their larger surface area. However, an increase in flowability was observed when plastic waste was used as aggregate, attributed to its lower water absorption. Depending on particle form, size, surface roughness, water-cement ratio, and cement paste volume, the flowability of concrete may improve with increasing amounts of fine recycled plastic aggregate. • Mechanical strength—including compressive, flexural, and tensile strength—decreased when plastic was used as aggregate. This reduction is primarily due to weak bonding between the plastic and cement paste. In contrast, plastic fibers enhanced mechanical strength by preventing crack propagation, like the effects observed with conventional fibers. • Durability of concrete declined with the use of plastic aggregates, whereas plastic fibers improved durability. However, available data on the durability performance of concrete with plastic waste remains limited. • Incorporating recycled plastic waste into concrete mixes is a promising strategy to mitigate environmental impacts, including pollution, energy use, waste disposal, and contributions to global warming.

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Copyright © 2025 Samkit Jain, Suresh Singh Kushwah. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.