Recycled plastic aggregates in manufacturing of insulating mortars

Barbara Liguori, Fabio Iucolano

Abstract


In this paper artificial aggregates based on recycled plastic materials, mostly polyolefin and polyethylene terephthalate waste, were used as partial replacement of natural aggregates for manufacturing hydraulic mortars. In particular, different amounts (10 to 50% by weight) of siliceous sand were substituted by the same weight of the above plastic waste, to obtain six mortars with different composition. The influence of plastic addition on physical properties (density, porosity, water vapour permeability) was studied. Moreover the thermal conductivity of the obtained mortars were evaluated.
Recycled plastic substitution enhances the open porosity with an increase in water vapour permeability. Nevertheless, the presence of plastic aggregate leads to a significant reduction in thermal conductivity, which improves the thermal insulation performances of the mortar. For this reason the addition of recycled plastic aggregate in the manufacturing of hydraulic mortars can be considered a way to reduce the growing environmental impact of polymers and, at the same time, it allows the development of increasingly eco-sustainable building materials.


Keywords


Recycle; green building; thermal insulation; hydraulic lime mortar

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12896/cse2014001009

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CSE Journal - City Safety Energy is a semiannual journal (Two ISSUES per Year) published by Le Penseur in Brienza (PZ) - Italy | ISSN print edition 2283-8767 | ISSN online edition 2284-3418 - Journal registerd at the Court of Potenza (Italy) n. 219/2014