REUSING GLASS POLYESTER WASTE IN CONCRETE

Mariola Jastrzbska
Gdynia Maritime University, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Commodity Science,
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Quality Science,
Corresponding address: Morska Str. 83, 81-225 Gdynia, Poland,
m.jastrzebska@wpit.am.gdynia.pl

Abstract: Glass fibre reinforced polyester materials are being increasingly used
in several applications, especially in the transport and construction sectors. The waste
management of glass polyester waste is difficult because those materials cannot
be reprocessing so therefore there is send to landfill. Due to the increased
environmental demands (based on legislation) and common awareness, the preparing
for the future end-of-life treatment is important for product manufacturers.
This case study was carried out the material recycling of glass reinforced polyester
waste which is shredded into smaller fragments and was added into concrete.
Material recycling presents significant environmental and economic advantages over
the other proposed recycling process. The mechanical properties of the concrete
with waste were characterized by compression and bending tests. It was found
that the adding of 2 wt.% of waste to the concrete result in an increase in flexural
strength and compressive strength as compared to the properties of the concrete
without waste. These results demonstrated the potential of reusing glass polyester
waste, at present landfilled, to manufacture durable precast concrete elements such
roof tiles, wall panels, paving blocks and architectural cladding materials.
Obtained results were promising towards a global cost-effective waste management
solution for glass reinforced polyester waste and end-of-life products that will lead
to a more sustainable composite materials industry.

Key words: concrete, glass reinforced polyester waste

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1. INTRODUCTION

Sustainable development is a major global concern nowadays. Landfill

is becoming unacceptable method of waste disposal. Finding new application
for waste material can help us to move toward sustainable development.
Re-utilization of waste material in concrete has positive environmental effects.
Especially that in 2011 the production value for concrete was about 56 billion
in Europe. Recently fibre reinforced concrete has become widely used
in different applications such as pavements, floors, overlays, industrial slabs.
Adding small fibres is purposely introduced into concrete to serve as bridges
across the surface of the cracks. Some of the commonly used fibres are steel,
polypropylene, aramid and glass fibres. The main benefit of using fibre
is the significant increase of the fracture toughness of fibre reinforced concrete
compared to normal concrete is because fibres are able to consume a large
quantity of energy through fibre crack bridging, fibre bending and fibre pull-
out and/or fibre de-bonding.
Glass fibres were originally found to be alkali reactive and products
in which they were used deteriorated quickly, so alkali-resistant glass fibres
are used in the manufacture of glass-reinforced cements products, which have
a wide range of applications. Glass fibres are effectively used to prevent
cracking problems due to shrinkage stresses in the production of thin sheets.
Alkali-resistant glass fibres have a density that is similar to that of concrete.
This ensures uniform mixing in the matrix as well as low rebound losses,
especially relevant in plastering applications. Alkali-resistant glass fibres
are superior to the conventional synthetic fibres even in the plastic stage since
they provide around 200 million reinforcing points thereby ensuring a better
bond between the concrete matrix and the reinforcement. The fibres also have
an elastic modulus which is significantly higher than concrete. This enables
the fibres to provide an effective reinforcement during the hardened stage

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of concrete. Glass fibre products exposed to outdoor environment have shown
a loss of strength and ductility. The reasons behind this are not clearly apparent
and it is speculated that alkali attack or fibre embrittlement are possible causes.
Glass reinforced concrete has been confined to non-structural uses where
it has wide applications. Glass reinforced concrete products are used
extensively in agriculture; for architectural cladding and components;
and for small containers. Glass fibre possesses high tensile strength (2 - 4 GPa)
and elastic modulus (70 - 80 GPa) but possess brittle stress-strain
characteristics (2.5 - 4.8% elongation at break) and low creep at room
temperature. Claims have been made that up to 5% glass fibre by volume has
been used successfully in cement. Independent studies conducted by Saint
Gobain [Subramanian 2003] have shown the following major benefits
in concrete at small dosage additions of 600 g/m3 of glass fibre: 85% reduction
in plastic shrinkage cracking, 25% reduction in bleeding, 13% increase
in compressive strength, increase in flexural strength by 15%, reduction
in permeability by 50%. The use of waste glasses as concrete aggregates
has a slight negative effect on the workability, strength and freezing-thawing
resistance of cement concrete. However, the main concern is expansion
and cracking of the concrete containing glass aggregates. It needs to control
the pH of the system below 12 in order to prevent potential corrosion of glass
aggregates and expansion of the concrete, which may be achieved
by the replacement of Portland cement with pozzzolanic materials such
as fly ash, silica fume and metakaoline, which are often used to reduce
or eliminate the alkali-aggregate reactions. Waste glasses can be used
as raw materials for cement production as siliceous sources. In the reaction
a siliceous with calcium hydroxide in the presence of water at room
temperature, insoluble calcium silicate hydrate are formed possessing
cementitious properties. Adnan reported that the addition of 5% of glass

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is increased the compressive strength but in contrast, an addition of 10%
of fine glass is decreased the compressive strength [Adnan et al. 2013].
The environmental and economic benefits from the reuse of recycled waste
glasses in concrete production can also be very significant depending o
n the end uses and production scale.
The main factor limiting the addition of glass particles in cement-based
materials is however the well-known expansive alkali-silica reaction.
The amorphous silica in glass is likely to be attacked by the alkaline
environment and would depolymerize to form monomer Si(OH)4,
which further react with cement alkalis, such as Na+, K+, and with Ca2+ to form
a gel-like structure. The alkali-silica-reaction gel can absorb water and swell
inside the microstructure of concrete, resulting in internal stress.
Once the internal stress exceeds the strength of concrete, severe cracking
and damage may occur. Some researchers have investigated the alkali
reactivity of glass particles [Cota et al.2015; Federico and Chidiac 2009].
Using waste glass as a substitution for a part of the aggregate in concrete was
the main motivation for Baant et al. [Baant and Steffens 2000] to formulate
a mathematical model for kinetics of alkali-silica reaction in concrete.
Only one of two distinct problems was dealt with, the kinetics of the chemical
reaction with the associated diffusion processes but fracture mechanics
of the damage process did not take into consideration. Parametric study
of the numerical solutions of the system of differential equations
of the problem clarifies the effects of particle size. The effects of mass
concentration of reactive silica in concrete and the dependence of alkali-silica-
reaction on the pore humidity evolution, were also studied.
The use of fibres or aggregates from waste as a reinforcement in concrete
is a relatively recent concept. It is focused on the advantages and financial
benefits of such use, besides their physical and mechanical properties.

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In the actual context of sustainable development, the use of waste in concrete
has become an attractive way to reduce the environmental impact of both
the huge amount of solid waste produced and the over use of virgin materials
as well. Several studies have been carried out to examine the use of different
types of waste particles in concrete such as PET from waste bottles, rubber
and steel from tires [Foti 2011; Ribeiro et al. 2013, Silva, Brito and Saikia
2013; Gupta, Chaudhary and Sharma 2014; Ghernouti et al.2015; Khaloo
et al. 2015;]. Ghernouti [Ghernouti et al. 2015] added plastic bag waste fibres
to concrete. Test results showed that the improvement varies from 4% to 74%,
it depends on the amount of fibres. However Silva [Silva, Brito and Saikia
2013] observed that the properties of concrete mixes containing polyethylene
terephthalate generally deteriorate less those of a conventional concrete.
Khaloo [Khaloo et al. 2015] used of polyester fibres recovered from waste car
timing belts in high performance concrete. The presence of waste fibres caused
an increase in the flexural toughness of the specimens but only a low volume
of fibre improved the compressive strength of the concrete. The studies carried
out by Ribeiro at all have confirmed good results after adding mechanically
recycled glass reinforced polymer waste to polymer concrete [Ribeiro
et al. 2013].
Glass reinforced polyester waste are difficult to recycle because unlike
they cannot be easy remolded. Several methods of glass reinforced polyester
waste disposal have been reported [Jastrzbska and Jurczak 2008; Jastrzbska
2011; Castro et al. 2013]. The recycling of glass reinforced polyester has been
studied extensively since many years. Fundamentally, three recycling
technologies have been researched and yield potential waste management
solution: material recycling, chemical recycling and co-processing. Most glass
reinforced polyester composites are produced for a specific purpose and there
is no chance of reuse them in other application. But waste (off-cuts parts)

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generated during production can be reused. In material recycling, waste
of composite is ground into finer fractions, which then can be used as a filler
or reinforcement in virgin composites or in concrete mixtures. Castro reported
that the best mechanical properties are achieved for polyester mortars with 8%
glass fibre reinforced polyester waste [Castro et al. 2013]. Previous studies
in Gdynia Maritime University showed that glass reinforced recyclate
in 10 wt.% content may be used as fillers in new polyester composites
[Jastrzbska and Jurczak 2008; Jastrzbska 2011]. In this work concretes
with glass polyester waste were prepared (Fig. 1) and some properties have
been studied.

glass reinforced recylate mixture of concrete concrete paving

polyester waste
Figure 1. Scenario for material recycling of glass reinforced polyester waste.
Source: Authors own work

2. EXPERIMENTAL

2.1. Materials

In this study the following materials were used: Portland cement CEM I,
tap water, natural fine aggregates and glass reinforced polyester waste.
The components in the concrete used in this research are presented in Table 1.
Mixing the ingredients were stirred a "frame" rate of approximately
2000 rpm/min at room temperature. Specimens of 40x40x160 mm were made
(Fig. 2).

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 a)

b)

Figure 2. Sample of concrete specimen (a) control, (b ) with 5% glass reinforced

polyester waste. Source: Authors own work

Samples of offcuts were collected from production of hulls for pleasure

boats. The waste of glass fibre reinforced cold-cured polyester laminates
were ground in a shredder manufactured in Kubala Sp. z o.o. (Ustro, Poland).
The recyclate was a mixture of cured polyester resin particles and glass fibre
(Fig. 1). The grains of recyclate were of different size smaller than 0.3 mm
(14.6%), size 0.33.15 mm (47.9%) and higher than 3.15 mm (37.5%).
The tests were executed on the specimens prepared from concrete with cement
to water ratio 1:2, and proportion of Portland cement to filler (aggregate
and recylate) 1:3. Cement is made from an intermediate product called clinker.
Clinker itself is a complex mixture formed during high temperature reactions
of limestone, clay, sand and iron. It contains calcium oxide (CaO), aluminium
oxide (Al2O3), silica dioxide (SiO2) and small amounts of iron oxide (Fe2O3).
The content of alkalis in cement CEM II/B-M (V-LL) 32.5 R was 1.02%.
The aggregate in size smaller than 2 mm used in the study was in accordance
with PN-EN 12620+A1:2010.

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Table 1. Composition of concrete mixtures with glass polyester waste

Glass reinforced polyester

recyclate Cement Aggregate Water
[g] [g] [g]
[wt.%] [g]
0 0 500 1500 250
2 46 500 1454 250
3 69 500 1431 250
4 92 500 1408 250
5 115 500 1385 250
6 138 500 1362 250
Source: Authors own work

2.2. Methods

The mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strength)

of the concretes were measured determined by using a Universal Testing
Machine ZD 10/90 according to methods formulated in European standards
PN-EN 12390-3:2011 and PN-EN 12390-5:2011. In the flexural test, the gauge
length was 100 mm. Water uptake of concretes properties were measured
according to standard PN-88/B-06250.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The addition of glass polyester recyclate to the concrete resulted

an increase of flexural strength of concrete when compared to the control
specimen (Fig. 3). The same conclusion was reached by Khaloo [Khaloo et al.
2015] for concrete with polymer fibre recovered from waste car timing.
Figure 3 shows the tests results of compressive strength of concretes depending
on an amount of waste. It was observed that higher substitution rate (> 4 wt.%)
of waste caused a decrease the compressive strength. The same results after

255
adding of recycled polyester fibre was reported by Khaloo [Khaloo et al.
2015]. Addition of fibre in high volume fraction led to a reduction
of compressive strength. The outcome of the present research showed
improved performance of the glass polyester recyclate filled concrete using 2%
and 3% glass polyester waste as compared to the normal concrete
recommended for structural applications. Addition of fibre in low volume
fraction resulting in an improved performance of mechanical properties
because the presence of SiO2, Al2O3, CaO and other polymeric compounds
in glass polyester waste greatly influenced to improving the bonding between
the waste, aggregate and cement matrices and enhanced the adhesion
and reinforcement in the concrete.

Figure 3. Changes of some properties of concretes with different amount of glass -

polyester waste compared with properties of concrete without recyclate. Source:
Authors own work

Figure 4 shows that the density of concrete decreases as the glass

reinforced polyester waste content increase. There is an approximately linear
decrease of the density of concrete with waste (determination coefficients

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is 0.95). The same conclusion was reached by Gupta [Gupta, Chaudhary
and Sharma 2014] for concrete with rubber ash. Although the measured density
of concrete samples was decreasing with the increase of waste content,
this reduction was insignificant.

4,0
density [g/cm3]

3,5 y = -0,083x + 3,389

3,0

2,5

2,0
0 2 3 4 5 6
amount of recyclate [%]

Figure 4. Density of concretes with different amount of glass reinforced polyester

waste. Source: Authors own work

Reuse of glass reinforced polyester in concrete in amount higher

than 4 wt.% is technically feasible for applications where compressive strength
is not the main requirement such as concrete pavement slabs. Usually higher
values of the water absorption concrete were obtained after aggregates were
replaced by waste. Therefore the investigations of concrete absorption were
conducted on specimens with 5 wt.% glass polyester recyclate and without
waste (Fig. 5).

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 7
absorbabilty [%] 6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56
days

control sample sample with 5% recyclate

Figure 5. Water absorbability of concrete with 5 wt.% of glass reinforced polyester

waste and without waste. Source: Authors own work

A 5% substitution of aggregate by recyclate in concrete led to a higher

water absorption by immersion than control specimen. The attention was paid
for volume of water absorption in control concrete specimen which is absorba-
bility on the level of 4%. Water absorption of concrete should not
be greater than 5% for concrete exposed to atmospheric agents (for special
concrete, e.g.: road requirements may be more stringent) and 9% for concrete
sheltered from the atmosphere. Similar observations have been reported
by Gupta [Gupta, Chaudhary and Sharma 2014] that water absorption of rubber
ash concrete increases with increasing replacement level fine aggregate.
The results demonstrate the potential of incorporating glass polyester
recyclate by replacing 2% or 3% aggregates to manufacture concrete elements.
The present study revealed that glass polyester waste can be effectively
recycled not only for manufacturing several concrete products for use
in building construction but also contributes in achieving the objective
of sound environmental management. Otherwise glass reinforced polyester

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will be landfilled. However, further studies are recommended to assess
the impact of alkali silica reaction and long-term durability of glass polyester
recyclate admixed concrete to confirm the environmental significance
for commercial exploitation of waste utilisation in concrete.
The other important aspect is that the polyester resins are not resistant
to alkaline environment of concrete and are used only for production
of the precast elements.
The using of glass polyester waste in concrete has proven waste
reduction, large volume market and varied products and encapsulates material
so safer for future generations. Innovations focused on material recycling
of glass reinforced polyester in concrete risks cement degradation
due to alkaline attack on glass fibers, so possibility of leaving voids over time,
supply too low for certain markets and need to certify material before
any widespread use.

4. CONCLUSIONS

Glass reinforced polyester composites is made of glass fibres dispersed

in a polyester resin and widely used in production of boats. Today, nearly 90%
of all recreational boats are constructed of glass fibre reinforced polyester.
The market of glass composites in Europe is estimated 1 million tons.
Poland is one of the leading manufacturers of composite marine unites,
which are produced 15-17 thousand annually. Therefore the annual amount
of after production scrapped fibre glass reinforced polyester reaches
2 kilo tons. Utilizing these materials in the production of building materials
will obviously help to decrease the amount of environmental pollution.
Especially that the production of concrete reached 19.181 M m3 in 2014 in
Poland.

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 It was observed after the addition of glass polyester recyclate to concrete
the increase of flexural strengths of specimens. The compressive strength
of concretes with amount of more than 4 wt.% waste addition of hardening still
had lower values when compared to those of the control specimens.
Reuse of glass reinforced polyester recyclate in amount of 2 wt.% and 3 wt.%
in concrete is possible. The results demonstrate the potential of incorporating
glass reinforced polyester recyclate to manufacture cement.
The reuse of glass polyester waste in concrete production has many
benefits: cuts waste disposal costs, which are likely to rise due to landfill tax,
conserves the environment by saving large amount of primary raw materials
each year and extends the life of our landfill sites, helping to conserve
the countryside. Not only environmental and economic benefits can be very
significant but also increases public awareness of the problem of waste
and benefits of recycling. The tests results confirmed that glass polyester waste
can be a replacement for aggregate in concrete for example in paving blocks
manufacturing. The use of waste in cement has proven to beneficial not only
environmental and saving a raw materials but also in terms of the mechanical
improvements of concrete.

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STRESZCZENIE

Wzrasta zastosowanie kompozytw poliestrowo-szklanych, szczeglnie

w transporcie i budownictwie. Zagospodarowanie odpadw poliestrowo-szklanych
jest trudne, poniewa nie nadaj si one do ponownego przetwrstwa i trafiaj
na skadowiska. W zwizku z coraz wiksz odpowiedzialnoci przedsibiorcw
oraz wymaganiami prawnymi wane jest opracowanie metody zagospodarowania
tych odpadw. W przedstawionej pracy zastosowano recykling materiaowy,
ktry wydaje si najkorzystniejszy ekonomicznie i ekologicznie w stosunku do innych
metod. Rozdrobnione odpady poliestrowo-szklane dodano do betonu oraz oceniono
wytrzymao na ciskanie i zginanie prbek. Przeprowadzone badania wykazay,
e odpady poliestrowo-szklane mog by wykorzystane do produkcji elementw
betonowych takich jak dachwki, panele elewacyjne, kostki brukowe czy okadziny.
Uzyskane wyniki wskazuj obiecujcy kierunek zagospodarowania odpadw
poliestrowo-szklanych, co przyczyni si do zrwnowaonej produkcji kompozytw.

Sowa kluczowe: beton, odpady poliestrowo-szklane

262