PET concrete as paver block

Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2016, 020015 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055417

Published Online: 27 September 2018

Nor Farah Atiqah Ahmad, Siti Nooraiin Mohd Razali, Suhaila Sahat, and Masiri Kaamin

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2016, 020015 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055417 2016, 020015

© 2018 Author(s).
 PET Concrete as Paver Block
Nor Farah Atiqah Ahmad1,a), Siti Nooraiin Mohd Razali1, Suhaila Sahat1, Masiri
Kaamin1

1
Centre for Diploma Studies, Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Bandar EduHubPagoh,
Pagoh, Malaysia
a)
Corresponding author: norfarah@uthm.edu.my

Abstract.This research is carried out to investigate the performance of concrete containing Polyethylene Terephthalate
(PET) bottle waste as fine aggregate. PET bottle waste was chosen because it is being thrown after single use and cause
environmental problem. This PET concrete then will be applied as a paver block for pedestrian walk. To reduce waste
PET, the PET bottles was recycled and used in concrete mixture as a fine aggregate. PET bottles was cleaned and grinded
into small irregular shape. Then, it was incorporate with the concrete and the test was conducted to find out the suitable
strength for PET concrete that will be applied as paver block. The study was conducted by using cube mould to
investigate the strength of the concrete. A total of four batches of concrete were produced namely, standard concrete and
concrete containing PET of 5%, 10% and 15%. In this research, the compressive strength of the concrete were measured
following British Standard method. The results revealed that the presence of PET in concrete will decrease the concrete
performance. Nevertheless, the content of PET was specified in a specific limit to avoid the effect of concrete strength.

INTRODUCTION
PET is a plastic resin and the most common type of polyester. It is one of the common consumer plastic used
and is widely employed as raw material products such as mineral water bottles, soft drink bottles, container for
packaging of food and other consumer goods. The amount of PET consumed annually has been growing steadily
due to its low density, strength, user friendly designs, fabrication capabilities, long life expectation, light weight, and
low cost. However, this can cause a setback in contributing of the waste disposal crisis that would lead to several
environmental issues [1]. Based on the research that made by Agamuthum&Faizura [2] on biodegradability of
degradable plastic waste, found that the third largest waste volume in Malaysia municipal waste solid waste (WSW)
constitutes is plastic based product. It is generated about 15% of national Malaysia Municipal Waste Solid Waste
(MSW).Table 1 shows the statistical consumption rate for different plastics daily. The excessive presence of the
non-biodegradable plastic based product waste will diminished the useful life of the landfill due to this behavior of
the waste to stay under graded for more than 50 years. A large number of this waste cannot totally be eliminated, yet
the impact of the waste to the environment can be reduced by changing to more sustainable materials in other
industries.
In this study, the application of concrete reinforcing PET as a pavement for pedestrian walkway has been done
in order to reduce the amount of plastics waste. Construction industries are one of the area that can use a large
amount of solid waste especially in concrete production. Thus, the usage of wastes instead of natural resources for
concrete production will contribute in lowering other environmental issues. The PET bottles can be used in concrete
production either as a fiber or replacement for an aggregate to form a lightweight concrete. However, by increasing
the amount of PET material, it will reduce the mechanical properties of concrete respectively.
PET bottles that have been grinded and sieved will be used to produce concrete reinforcing PET. The mixture of
this component will be applied as paver blocks. The most common types of pavers used for pedestrian's walkway
include natural stones, bricks, clay, concrete, engraved, and even rubber. The other materials that normally used are

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Applied Science and Technology (ICAST’18)
AIP Conf. Proc. 2016, 020015-1–020015-6; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055417
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1734-2/$30.00

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steel and aluminum. However in this study, the crushed PET will be used as fine aggregate that can lower the cost,
have longer life span and can prevent cracking. In the nutshell, pedestrian walkway plays an important role in light
transportation, providing a safer path for pedestrian that is separated from the motorized traffic. By providing a
walkway that is comfortable and safer for people to use it is hope it can lessen the accident. Another advantage of
using PET fibers is that it will increase the strength and also lowering the raw material usage. Not to be forgotten, it
is also ecofriendly and help in lowering the environmental issues.

TABLE 1. Consumption rate for different types of plastics resin per day of the respondent companies [3]
Plastic resin Kg / day
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) 4588
Polypropylene (PP) 12827
Polystyrene (PS) 9413
Polycarbonate 1825
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) 13218
Others 4966

POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE
In the early 1970s, the technology was developed to allow for the blow-stretch molding of PET into strong,
lightweight and shatterproof bottles. In 1973, the PET bottle was patented and quickly gained marked acceptance. In
1977, the first PET bottle was recycled.PET fiber consumption nowadays have become an integral part of our lives.
The amounts of plastics consumed annually have been increasing steadily. There are several factors that contribute
to the rapidly growth of plastics consumption such as low density, fabrication capabilities, long life, lightweight, and
low cost of production. Plastic has been used widely in packaging, automotive and industrial applications, medical
delivery systems, artificial implants, other healthcare applications, land/soil conservation, water desalination, flood
prevention, preservation and distribution of food, housing, communication materials, security systems, and other
uses. Large applications of plastics in all part of daily activities increase the volume of plastic waste.
Based on previous researches, experimental investigations were done to investigate the properties of concrete
containing PET fiber. Fiber-reinforced concrete, in the hardened state, has the typical aspect of ordinary concrete,
but in contrast to this, it has an increase of ductility and reduced shrinkage cracking. PET is a thermoplastic
polyester with tensile and flexural modulus of elasticity 3100 N/mm2, which is lower than the concrete matrix one.
[4] study the compressive and tensile strength of Recycled Ring Waste PET Bottle (RPET) Fiber (refer Table 2).
The waste bottle was used in this study as the fiber concrete where the waste bottles were cleaned and has been cut
in a ring shape. The diameter of ring waste PET was fixed at 60 ± 5 mm. Size width of ring fiber was fixed at 5 and
10 ± 1mm. The behavior of the concrete fiber was performed by measuring properties of RPET fiber concrete in a
hardened state. Concrete cylinder specimens with dimensions 150mm in diameter and 300 mm in length were
prepared with different volume of fiber content and water binder ratio for compressive strength test. The specimens
were tested at age of 28 days after curing.
According to previous study by Irwan et.al, [5], the density of PET Fiber Concrete is decreased with the increase
of fiber content. The density of fiber concrete comparing with standard concrete reduce by 0.07%, 0.43% and 0.67%
for concrete with water cement ratio 0.45, reduced by 0.29%, 0.39% and 0.53% for concrete with water cement ratio
0.55 and reduced by 0.36%, 0.87% and 1.09% for concrete with water cement ratio 0.65 for 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%
PET added to concrete respectively. Based on the data from Table 2, it is clearly indicated that the slump of the
mixture is decreased when the amount of PET fibers content increase. This shows that the workability of the mixture
is decreased by adding PET fibers in the mixture [5].
Based on the study to determine the characteristic of concrete by using PET aggregate with the replacement ratio
of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, [6] found that the split tensile strength of concrete decrease with the increase in
PET aggregate. The decrease in split tensile strength seems to be related to the aggregate density and the adhesive
strength between aggregate and binder. Choi et al., (2009) [6] also conclude that for a particular PET aggregate
content, split tensile strength increased with the reduction in water content ratio. This due to the reduction of pore
spaces that will reduce the strength of the concrete.

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 TABLE 2. Compressive Strength and Tensile Strength of RPET
COMP. TENSILE
RPET, % W/B STRENGTH STRENGTH
fc (MPa) f-st(MPa)
0.00 37.53 3.31
0.25 38.2 3.47
0.50 39.7 3.63
0.75 0.45 40.23 3.80
1.00 39.23 3.79
1.25 36.77 3.49
1.50 35.98 3.29
0.00 32.72 3.08
0.25 36.45 3.32
0.50 37.96 3.50
0.75 0.55 38.29 3.66
1.00 39.67 3.77
1.25 37.82 3.63
1.50 31.44 2.84

METHODOLOGY
Materials and Designs

The cement used in this study was ordinary Portland cement and the mix proportions as in Table 3. Water cement
ratio used was 0.50. Waste PET materials from shredded PET bottles are used partially replacing conventional fine
aggregates (sand). The post-consumer waste PET bottles were collected and processed by Plastic Granulator
Machine. Shredded materials were sieved and range of particles sizes of PET is shown in Table 4 and Fig. 1(a). By
taking [7] as guideline, the minimum 28-day compressive strength must be above 32MPa, air content based on
maximum size aggregate of up to 20 mm (recommend 5.0 to 8 percent) or 4.0 to 7.0 percent if aggregate size is up
to 40 mm, nominal maximum size of aggregate up to 40 mm and maximum water cementing ratio 0.45.

(a) (b)

FIGURE 1. (a) Grinded PET bottles, (b) Mixing concrete process

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 Test Methods

Four specimens with different percentage of PET replacement were prepared. The specimen size was 100mm x
100mm x 100mm and six blocks were made for each specimen. The entire sample preparation was according to BS
1881: Part 125: 1983. The slump of fresh concrete was also measured according to BS 1881: Part 102: 1983
immediately after mixing in order to evaluate the workability of concrete. After 24h, all specimens were demoulded
and placed in the curing tank up to 7 days and 28 days. The density of hardened concrete was measured at the age of
7 days and 28 days by referring to BS 1881: 114: 1983. Compressive strength of hardened concrete was also tested
at the age of 7 days and 28 days according to BS 1881: Part 116: 1983.

TABLE 3. Mix design of concrete with waste PET as fine aggregate replacement.
PET Volume
Mass (kg)
Replacement
Specimen Fine Coarse
Cement Water/ Cement ratio (%) kg
Aggregate Aggregate
0% PET 2.10 4.10 8.20 1.05 0% 0
5% PET 2.10 3.90 8.20 1.05 5% 0.21
10% PET 2.10 3.69 8.20 1.05 10% 0.41
15% PET 2.10 3.49 8.20 1.05 15% 0.62

TABLE 4. Range of PET size.

Mass of sample used: 200g
Mass of Percentage Cumulative Cumulative
Sieve size retained of retained Percentage of Percentage of
(g) (%) retained Passing
6.00 mm 5 2.50 2.50 97.5
5.00 mm 41 20.5 23.0 77.0
2.00 mm 133 66.5 89.5 10.5
850 µm 15 7.50 97.0 3.00
600 µm 1 0.50 97.5 2.50
425 µm 1 0.50 98.0 2.00
160 µm 1 0.50 98.5 1.50
PAN 3 1.50 100.0 0
Total 200 100

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The mass of each PET concrete block before curing shows a decrease in weight as PET content increases.
However, it increases after 7 and 28 days of curing. This may due to the presence of void in the concrete.
Nevertheless, the PET somehow helps in reducing the weight of the concrete. Fig.2 shows the mean compressive
strength of PET blocks. Standard concrete block without the replacement of PET has the compressive strength of
21.4 MPa while for 5%, 10% and 15% of PET has 20.9 MPa, 12.2 MPa and 10.9 MPa respectively. The strength
performance for PET concrete after 7 days fluctuated with the increasing of PET content; 5% PET content has
increased the strength up to 49.2% as for 10% and 15% of PET content has deteriorate the performance by 21.2%
and 7.8% respectively (Fig. 3). However, the strength of PET concrete shows continuous deceased from 2.3% (5%
of PET), 43% (10% of PET) and 49% (15% of PET) This may due to lack of adhesion between chipped PET and
cement paste [1]. The maximum strength compressive strength is 19.1 MPa at 5% PET content and the minimum
strength is 10.1 MPa at 10% PET content for 7 days after curing. As can be seen, the pattern of the graph clearly
shows the tendency of small decrease in strength of the concrete containing PET. The low adhesive strength
between plastic surface and the cement paste was the reason attributed to the decreasing of compressive strength [8].
Thus, the recycled PET does not contribute the strength of the concrete as does the natural fine aggregate. Besides,

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the low density of PET aggregate compare to the natural fine aggregate also contribute to the reduction of the
compressive strength respectively.

7 days 28 days
25

21.4 20.9
20
19.1

15
MPA

12.8 12.2 11.8

10 10.1 10.9

0
0% 5% 10% 15%
PET CONTENT (%)

FIGURE 2. Compressive strength graph

7 days 28 days

60
Percentage DIfference, %

40
20
0
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
-20
-40
-60
PET Content, %

FIGURE 3. Strength changes

CONCLUSION

The focused of this study are to produce PET reinforced concrete as paver blocks for the pedestrian walkways
which are more eco-friendly by reducing the amount of PET bottle in landfills area and to evaluate the comparison
of PET reinforced concrete as paver blocks with standard concrete mixture for paver blocks performance. Presented
in this paper is the results of mechanical properties of PET in concrete mixture which have been tested for
compressive strength and the related test includes slump test by comparing with standard concrete. The standard fine
aggregates have been replaced by 5%, 10% and 15% of PET content. Although it does not gives excellent result as
standard concrete mixture, the strengths of PET concrete blocks still shows and impressive strength for pedestrian
walkway usage. The samples of PET concrete content will affect the strength of the concrete block nevertheless. The
strong PET are desired and used to improve concrete strength and ductility, but may lead to loss in segregation,
increased porosity, and overall reduction in concrete strength. In addition, high dosages of PET reinforced will cause
workability problems because of their relatively surface area. The addition of this essentially PET reinforced

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concrete is an option in construction industry. It is a better means of recycling waste plastic resulted to a sustainable
environment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to express their appreciation to all parties who have contributed to this research,
especially to Office for Research, Innovation, Commercialization and Consultancy Management (ORICC), UTHM,
Johor

REFERENCES

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