RESEARCH PAPERS

UTILIZATION OF DISCARDED PET BOTTLE GRANULES AS FINE

AGGREGATE IN CONCRETE - A FEASIBILITY STUDY
By
T. SEKAR
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University College of Engineering, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India.

ABSTRACT
An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the feasibility of discarded Poly Ethylene Terephthalate (PET)
bottle granules as fine aggregate in concrete. Mechanical strength and temperature studies have been conducted on
162 numbers of standard concrete specimens which are made with or without waste PET bottle granules as per relevant
Indian standard code procedure. The waste PET bottle granules have been used as a substituting material in lieu of
conventional fine aggregate in concrete ranging from 0 to 100% at an interval of 10%. The mechanical strength studied
includes compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength at the age of 28 days. Temperature studies have
been conducted on concrete cube specimens by exposing it to series of peak temperatures such as 300 0 C, 600 0 C and
9000 C, to evaluate residual compressive strength. It has been found from test results that substitution of discarded PET
bottle granules in place of conventional fine aggregate in concrete reduces compressive strength, tensile strength,
flexural strength, residual compressive strength and density of concrete markedly, and the reduction in strength and
density increases with increase in PET bottle granules content in concrete. Also, reduction in residual compressive
strength increases with increase in temperature for specimens made with and without PET bottle granules in concrete.
Keywords: Concrete, Fine aggregate, Discarded PET Bottle Granules, Strength and Temperature Studies.
INTRODUCTION

approximately 40 million tons of solid waste is getting

Concrete will continue to be the leading construction

generated annually and is increasing at the rate of 1.5 to

material all over the world in view of its strength, durability,

2% every year. Plastics constitute 12.30% of total solid

mouldability and low cost. Cement, fine aggregate (i.e.

waste generated and is mostly from discarded PET bottles

natural sand), coarse aggregate and water are the basic

[26]. The discarded PET bottles are non-decaying waste

materials used in the production of concrete. These basic

material and will remain in earth for thousands of years by

materials are fast depleting due to brisk construction

polluting environment. In addition, the non-decaying

activities and must be preserved for sustainable

waste PET bottles contaminate soil and ground water, and

development of nation. In this direction, a number of

also affect growth of vegetation on the surface of earth.

attempts have been made in the past to identify

Disposal of waste PET bottles is a rapidly growing problem

appropriate alternate/substitute materials that can be

and effective utilization of this waste alleviates both

used either partially or fully for making concrete without

disposal and environmental problems to a great extent.

compromising concrete quality. Some of the substitute

Hence, in this present study an attempt has been made to

materials identified includes: (i) fly ash, silica fume,

explore the possibility of using waste PET bottle in the

metakaolin, waste glass powder, rice husk ash, etc, for

construction industry.

cement [9], [17], [24], [25], [29], [31]; (ii) crusher stone dust,

1. Literature Review

copper slag, bottom ash, discarded PET bottle flakes, etc,

In the construction industry, discarded PET bottles are

for fine aggregate [3], [4], [6], [8], [19], [26], [28], [30] and

being used either by filling empty PET bottles with suitable

(iii) Broken tile waste, ceramic waste, brick bats etc, for

filler materials and using them for construction of

coarse aggregate [7], [10], [18], [21], [22]. In India,

temporary/small scale structures, partition/non-loading

i-managers Journal on Civil Engineering, Vol. 5 l

No. 4 l
September - November 2015