KONGU ENGINEERING

COLLEGE

RESUSE OF POLYETHYLENE
WASTE IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION

BY,

S.PREETHI
S.RENU
INTRODUCTION
In developing countries having a
predominantly rural population,
large networks of roads, need to
be constructed using new low
cost materials.
In this investigation an attempt
has been made to study reuse of
polyethylene waste in road
construction
METHODOLOGY
The specific objective of the work is
incorporation of polyethylene
waste in
the stabilization of typical sub
grade soil.
Polyethylene grocery bags are
collected
and compressed into sheets of
different
dimension. (1cm x 1cm, 2cm x 2cm,
3cm x
3cm, 4cm x 4cm, 4cm x 2.25cm
METHODOLOGY
The bags were compressed at 80
degrees.

The optimum moisture content

of gravel
and clay were determined by
proctor
compaction test and same
moisture
content was maintained .
S.N CLAY
O ENGINEERING GRAVEL
PROPERTIES

1 Dry Density 121.87 22.02

N/m2 N/m2

2 Optimum
moisture 9.25 % 8.75 %
content
3 Liquid Limit 24 % -
4 Plastic Limit 11 % -
5 Plasticity Index 13 % -
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The main objective of the present
investigation is to determine the
improvement in strength of different soils
by adding the polyethylene waste .
As the strength of pavement is
dependent on the type of soil, moisture
content, dry density, and the internal
structure of the soil, the effect of various
percentages of polyethylene on the CBR
values of two different soils were
observed.
Initially
a size of 2cm x 2cm and a
thickness of 1mm of polyethylene
waste pieces were selected, and CBR
tests were conducted as per the
standard procedure for every 2%
increase of polyethylene waste in the
gravel sample .
The results clearly shows an increase in
CBR value for adding 2% polyethylene
pieces by weight of gravel, and then
decreased gradually for 4% & 6% .
POLYETHYLEN CBR PERCENTAGE
E WASTE

SIZE 1cmx1cmx1 2cm x 3cm x 3cm x

% mm 2cmx1mm 1mm

10.56 10.56 10.56

0

2 10.71 11.23 11.12

4 - 10.9 -

6 - 10.41 -
EFFECT OF POLYETHYLENE
WASTE ON CBR VALUES OF
CLAY:
Initially a size of 2 cm x 2 cm and a
thickness of 1mm of polyethylene
waste pieces were selected and CBR
tests were conducted for every 2%
increase of polyethylene waste on the
clay sample.
The result clearly shows an increase
in CBR value up to 4% of waste
polyethylene and then decreased to
6% and 8%.
 Eventhough, the polyethylene pieces
of 3cm x
3cm, 4cm x 2.25cm and 5cm x
1.18cm have
same surface area, i.e. 9sq.cm,the
square size i.e.
3cm x 3cm has improved CBR value
of soil
compared to the other two.
Later, the waste polyethylene of
thickness 0.5
mm and 1.5 mm was tried. The
results indicate
POLYETYLE CBR (%)
NE WASTE
1cm x 1cm 2cm x 2cm 3cm x 3cm 4cm x 4cm 4cm x 5cm x

size 2.25cm 1.8cm

%
- 3.63 3.63 - - -
0

- 8.26 10.84 - - -
2

11 17.39 20.31 16.11 16.55 15.45

4

- 16.25 19.65 - - -
6

- 9.32 - - - -
8
POLYETYLENE CBR (%)
WASTE (%)

3cm x 3cm x 0 .5 mm 3cm x 3cm x 1.5 mm

SIZE
%

13.82 18.84

4
CONCLUSION

As the performance of pavement

is dependent on the strength of
subgrade and sub-base, the
improvement in CBR value by
adding polyethylene waste on clay
and gravel is studied.
The reuse of polyethylene bags a
significant impact on strength and
economy in pavement construction
The improvement in CBR values
is more in clay stabilized with
polyethylene waste as much as
400% than in gravel stabilized
with polyethylene waste, where
the increase is only 10%.
By using these compressed
polyethylene waste bags in
subgrade, the thickness required
above the subgrade can be
reduced by about 60%.
QUARIES ???