Using PET Plastic to Modify and Improve Asphaltic Pavement's Resistance to Moisture Susceptibility and to Cut Down Environmental Impact of PET Waste

Abstract

With an ever-increasing population of Islamic republic of Pakistan, and exponential consumption of PET plastic materials filling our landfill sites and blocking canals, waterways, and drainages, a viable and a reliable solution for reuse or recycling of PET must be proposed. Burning and disposing in traditional ways produces harmful quantities of not only CO2 but other by-product such as benzo pyrene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons PAHs which are both carcinogens. Thus, our project consists of analyzing and testing the addition of PET waste in Hot mix asphalt (HMA), to enhance the properties of asphaltic pavements while utilizing the recycled PET and replacing a percentage of bitumen, saving costs, logistics and the environment from further pollution and production of greenhouse gases while reducing waste at landfill sites. Asphaltic pavement in Pakistan suffers from failures and damage throughout the country, some are less damaged while others can be a cause of serious injury or even death, resulting in unsafe and inconvenient travel ways for the people. During Monsoons season, rain further induces damage and causes potholes and cracks to widen in the roads, making them undriveable and inflicts damage to vehicles and obstruction for the pedestrians, infusing frustration among people. As a result of our study, we determined that the addition of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) into asphalt concrete has increased the TSR – Tensile Strength Ratio . The TSR value increases from 0.674 in virgin asphalt cake to 0.758 in 8% PET based modified asphalt cake which indicates an increase in the resistance to moisture susceptibility hence an improved service life and pavement performance. Also, assuming a 10KM long flexible pavement, we will be utilizing an approximately 85000kg weight of PET and this can significantly tackle the issue of plastic pollution in terms of plastic bottles and PET based packaging material.