Effect of Plastic Waste on Strength of Clayey Soil and Clay Mixed with Fly Ash

Abstract

Due to rapid industrialization and development in urban areas, every year, huge quantity of plastic wastes are being generated throughout the world. Disposal of these wastes in landfills creates serious environmental problems. Several studied are available on the utilization of plastic waste with different type of soils. However, the study on the utilization of plastic waste with clayey soil and with clay- fly ash mixture is limited. This paper present the effect of plastic waste as a strips on the strength of clayey soil and clay-fly ash mixture and the results are presented in term of compressive strength, shear strength, california bearing ratio CBR)and consolidation characteristics. The different percentage of plastic waste 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% by dry weight of 10mm length and 4 mm width) and 10% fly ash by weight were mixed into the clayey soil. From the experimental results, incorporation of the plastic waste into the clayey soil gives a decreasing trend of maximum dry density and increasing trend of optimum moisture content. The addition of 1% plastic waste in clayey soil and clay-fly ash mixture increases the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) by 43% and 120%, respectively after 28 days of curing at ambient condition. The study reveals that addition of plastic waste into clayey soil and clay-fly ash mixture results in an appreciable increase in the internal friction angle, CBR value under soaked and un-soaked condition and reduction in co-efficient of compressibility. The present study will help in consuming the considerable quantity of waste plastic thereby reducing the environmental threat.