Preliminary Evaluation of Plasmix Compound from Plastics Packaging Waste for Reuse in Bituminous Pavements

Clara Celauro, Rosalia Teresi, Francesco Graziano, Francesco Paolo La Mantia and Antonio Protopapa
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Clara Celauro: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90100 Palermo, Italy
Rosalia Teresi: INSTM, Italian National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology, Via Giusti 9, 50125 Florence, Italy
Francesco Graziano: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90100 Palermo, Italy
Francesco Paolo La Mantia: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90100 Palermo, Italy
Antonio Protopapa: COREPLA, Italian National Consortium for the Collection and Recycling of Plastic packages, 20100 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: Finding an appropriate technical solution for reusing waste plastics is crucial for creating a circular plastic economy. Although mechanical recycling is the best option for recycling post-consumer plastics, some heterogeneous mixed plastics cannot be recycled to produce secondary material due to their very low properties. In this case, alternative routes should be considered in order to limit their disposal as much as possible. Therefore, in order to solve the environmental problems in the landfills of plastic waste recycling, and to improve the mechanical performance of bitumen for road pavement, the reuse of these post-consumer plastic wastes are preliminarily evaluated for the modification of bitumen for road use. The field of polymers used so far and widely studied concerns virgin materials, or highly homogeneous materials, in case of recycled plastics. In this work, a highly heterogeneous mixed plastic—Plasmix—from the separate collection in Italy, is used as a bitumen modifier for road construction. The research focused on the dry (into the mixture) and wet (into the binder) addition of different content of the Plasmix compound, with the aim of assessing the feasibility of the modification itself. Results of the mechanical tests carried out prove an increase in performance and that there is a potential of the addition of the Plasmix compound both for binder and mixture modifications.

Keywords: circular economy; sustainable reuse; plastic; waste; separate collection; polymer modified bitumen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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