Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Challenges
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envc

Producing sustainable concrete with plastic waste: A review

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Plastics are cheap, lightweight, versatile, and readily accessible material. The utilization of plastic has become a
Concrete necessary facet of our day-to-day lives, and its production has risen exponentially in the last 50 years. As a result,
Economic there is an increase in the generation of waste related to plastic that leads to undermining the environment.
Plastic waste
This encourages researchers to use this waste in concrete manufacturing as a sustainable material. However, this
Sustainability
paper reviews recent research on how the utilization of recycled plastic in concrete is an effective solution to
Lightweight concrete
Insulation enhance sound and thermal insulation. The aggregate comprises the largest and heaviest portion of concrete,
which accounts for 85% of its weight. Besides, the plastic has a low density compared to the aggregate. As a
result, the use of plastic waste as a partial replacement (50% to 75%) for the total aggregate significantly boosts
the efficiency of thermal and sound lightweight concrete insulation. In addition, the cost of its manufacturing
is drastically diminishing in comparison to that of ordinary concrete, and plastic can be installed and utilized
quickly with less labor due to its lightweight nature. Plastic waste may be considered a typical material for the
production of lightweight green concrete that can be used as a non-structural component in building construction.

1. Introduction be produced by 2050 being Asia, North America, and Europe the higher
producers with 50, 10 and 16% of the future supply, respectively.
Since the 1920s, plastic materials have effectively penetrated ev- Furthermore, plastic waste can be defined as the accumulation of
ery aspect of modern-day life, from the microchips in your computer plastics on the Earth’s surface that originates from different sources like
to shopping bags. Plastics are the essential ingredient used in our cur- packaging industries and households. Around 6.5 billion tons of plastic
rent industrial sectors (Fig. 1), with the packaging being the largest user wastes are produced each year across the globe (Jnr et al., 2018). The
(36%). Plastic is used just in any sector because it is not just one ma- accumulation of plastic waste results in an environmental problem be-
terial, but a group of materials: Polymers. There are so many different cause most of the plastics are non-biodegrade in nature and takes more
types of plastic material presenting incredibly useful and versatile prop- than 400 years to degrade. In this context, plastic waste is placed in
erties. Table 1 gathers the most used plastic materials and, e.g., their landfills that need large space which eventually has an impact on the
mechanical properties at room temperature. landfill site (Da Costa et al., 2016). Besides, plastic waste has become
Two of the most advantageous properties of plastics are their so prevalent that marine habitats, biomes, and human health are now
longevity and endurance, allowing the fabrication of durable products under a significant threat (Singh and Ruj, 2015). In this regard, stud-
that need minimal maintenance, resulting in products being highly cost- ies have demonstrated that the degradation of plastic waste produces
effective over their lifespan (Ragaert et al., 2017). These properties nanoparticles that are added to the food chain affecting negatively ani-
make humans deal with plastics almost every day in any daily inter- mal health (Prata et al., 2019).
action, in comparison with other materials. The advantages of these Furthermore, to reduce the environmental burden, concrete actions
materials and the increase in the world’s populations made that the plas- need to be taken. Currently, the two main ways to reduce plastic waste
tics industry will double its production in the next ten to twenty years are incineration and recycling (Jassim, 2017; Eriksson and Finnve-
(Truchot et al., 2018). Then, a total of 700 million tons of plastic will den, 2009). Regarding the first, plastic waste can be burned to generate

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Mushtaq).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100626
Received 22 July 2021; Received in revised form 1 October 2022; Accepted 1 October 2022
2667-0100/© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
A.I. Almohana, M.Y. Abdulwahid, I. Galobardes et al. Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

Table 1
Mechanical characteristics of some of the most common plastic materials (Geyer et al., 2017; Euractive report on plastics).

Material Specific Gravity Tensile Modulus (GPa) Tensile Strength (MPa) Yield Strength(MPa) Elongation at Break (%)

Polyethylene (low density) 0.92 - 0.93 0.17 - 0.28 8.3 - 31.4 9.0 - 14.5 100 - 650
Polyethylene (high density) 0.95 - 0.97 1.06 - 1.09 22.1 - 31.0 26.2 - 33.1 10 - 1200
Polyvinyl chloride 1.20 - 1.58 2.40 - 4.10 40.7 - 51.7 40.7 - 44.8 40 - 80
Polytetrafluoroethylene 2.14 - 2.20 0.40 - 0.55 20.7 - 34.5 – 200 - 400
Polypropylene 0.90 - 0.91 1.14 - 1.55 31.0 - 41.4 31.0 - 37.2 100 - 600
Polystyrene 1.04 - 1.05 2.28 - 3.28 35.9 - 51.7 – 1.2 - 2.5
Polymethyl methacrylate 1.17 - 1.20 2.24 - 3.24 48.3 - 72.4 53.8 - 73.1 2.0 - 5.5

Fig. 1. Primary plastic production by industrial sector, 2015 (Geyer et al., 2017;
Sunil et al., 2020).

energy from waste. For instance, researchers are working on using plas-
tic waste as a fuel to be used in the cement industries (Jassim, 2017;
Fig. 2. Waste recycling and treatments estimation up to 2021 (Geyer et al.,
Li et al., 2020). The energy generated incinerating plastic waste is 2017; Sunil et al., 2020; Cestari and Sibele 2020).
used to heat the limestone to produce clinker. However, incineration
is regarded as a sensible unsustainable matter (Da Costa et al., 2016). tion of concrete. Doing this, the authors aim to highlight the benefits of
Plastic materials are made from hydrocarbons, just like oil, and there- using this type of waste to produce more sustainable concrete and in-
fore, incinerating plastic entails a bigger expansion of waste-burning, fluence engineers, mostly in developing countries, to make use of these
such as releasing carbon dioxide. Besides, waste-to-energy plants are innovative practices already validated.
expensive and increase the total costs of dealing with plastic waste
(Valavanidis, 2018). 2. Plastic waste in concrete
On the other hand, studies present recycling as the most sustainable
way of reducing plastic waste regarding the drawbacks of landfilling and Concrete is the most used construction material in the world since it
incineration (Babafemi et al., 2018). However, not all plastics can be presents well-known advantageous characteristics. Concrete is a simple
recycled with the current technologies. These materials are divided into mix of ingredients, including cement, aggregate (coarse and fine), water
thermoplastics (such as polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride) and economically stronger and more durable as compared to other con-
and thermosets (such as silicone, epoxy, and polyurethane) being just struction materials (Ferriz-Papi and Thomas, 2017). Nonetheless, con-
the first group the ones that can be easily recycled (Bajracharya et al., crete presents major disadvantages such as its tensile strength is consid-
2017). Also, poor waste management policies, low waste collection, and erably weaker, which results in a simple failure due to tensile stresses
poor waste segregation systems decrease the efficiency of this method. (Sharma and Bansal, 2016) and environmental issues related to CO2
Fig. 2 depicts the amount of plastic waste generated in 2015 and the emissions and destruction of ecosystems due to the production of aggre-
estimated amount by the end of 2020. Besides, the figure presents the gates (Lehne and Preston, 2018).
amounts of plastic waste incinerated and recycled for both 2015 and In order to minimize these disadvantages and produce better and
2021. more sustainable concretes, engineers already produce reinforced con-
The percentage of plastic waste recycled in 2015 was 16%. Estima- crete such as the traditional steel-bar reinforcement or the more ad-
tions show that in 2021, the recycling rate will increase up to 25%. But vanced fiber reinforcement concrete to improve the mechanical prop-
if this production estimation turns out to be valid, a significant amount erties of the material. Another example concretes producers use recy-
of plastic waste will still be left un recycled (Foti, 2019). Then, there cled aggregates from demolition waste to minimize the depletion of
is a necessity of increasing the recycling of plastic waste in the future quarries and therefore, reduce the negative impact on the environment
and therefore innovative solutions need to be developed and applied. In (Awoyera and Adesina, 2020). However, these innovative ways to im-
that regard, Akinpelu et al. (2019) stated that the rates could be signif- prove concrete do not consider the problem related to plastic waste and
icantly increased if recycled plastic waste were reused in the Building its recycling.
and Construction sector, which is the second industry in the plastic us- The service life of concrete is longer than the plastic one, hence plas-
age ranking (Fig. 1). In that regard, building materials produced with tics might be incorporated in concrete to reduce the rate of waste that is
recycled plastics are not yet broadly utilized due to the lack of stan- left unrecycled reducing the impacts on ecosystems (Santhanam et al.,
dardization and the conservatism of the sector, however real prototypes 2020). Currently, the world produces 4.4 billion tons of concrete ev-
have primarily been utilized to demonstrate the goodness of this ma- ery year (Cajka et al., 2020). Considering these numbers, the usage of
terials (Thomas et al., 2009). In his context, the present article gathers plastic waste in the production of concrete may have tremendous po-
the lately research done on using recycled plastic waste in the produc- tential. Then, using recycling plastic waste in concrete may lead to sus-

2
A.I. Almohana, M.Y. Abdulwahid, I. Galobardes et al. Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

Fig. 3. Plastic aggregate manufacturing process (Bui et al., 2018).

tainable development and economic efficiency in construction industries (up to 50%) in concrete. As a common conclusion, recycled PET can
(Awad et al., 2020). be utilized in eco-friendly concrete production at certain replacement
On the other hand, it was reported that using E-waste plastic ag- rates. This approach diminishes the self-weight of concrete in structures
gregate (0 to 20% by volume of concrete) in concrete reduces the unit and can be used for non-structural elements that do not require high
weight of concrete thus reduction in the dead weight of the structure. compressive strength due to the properties of such plastic, which are
Hence it can be consumed as lightweight concrete (Zeyad, 2020). On primarily different from other aggregates. Notice that the study states
the other side, the use of E-waste can overcome many environmen- that the properties the aggregate substitutes primarily depend on the
tal problems as it reduces the landfill due to E-waste and minimizes initial treatment given to plastic waste (Omary et al., 2016). Hence,
the use of natural resources like aggregates. The two main ways to sustainability in the concrete industry may be enhanced by using such
use plastic waste in concrete are described in the following sections. plastic waste along with concrete to meet the requirements of sustain-
These are (1) using recycled plastic waste as fibers to reinforce con- able building and improving thermal properties, reducing the use of nat-
crete and (2) utilizing recycled plastic waste as aggregate concrete ural resources, ingestion of waste, avoiding pollution, and saving energy
substitutive. (Ferriz-Papi and Thomas, 2017).
Several methods are adopted to use plastic in concrete at sites. The
3. Recycled plastic waste as fiber reinforcement adoption of these methods also affects its effectiveness (Suchorab et al.,
2020). The simplest way to utilize plastic as aggregate in the mixture
Using plastic fibers as concrete reinforcement may lead to both is to mix the concrete simply adding plastic inside. This simple method
higher sustainability and structural performance and durability. In that allows producing batches in plants that can be used for multiple pur-
sense, the optimization of the concrete mixture’s composition and the poses (Aluko and Nna, 2014). The second method is to first heat the
dispersed reinforcement dosage is a very important role in the per- plastic and mix it with a coarse aggregate, then allow it to cool. After
spective of structural reliability and economics (Snell et al., 2017). To some time, plastic would strongly adhere to the aggregate (Zhang and
enhance the ductility of concrete, it can be reinforced with synthetic Poon, 2018). Plastic, alongside aggregate, has several functions; it can
since polymers do not oxide as does conventional steel reinforcement fill some pores in the concrete as well as improve the concrete response
(Adnan and Dawood, 2020; Bendjillali et al., 2020). in acoustic and thermal conductivity (Mokhatar et al., 2020). Notice that
Plastic microfibers are already used in different applications such as the bonding strength of plastic aggregates and the cement paste could be
pavements and tunnel linings. However, the use of these fibers is com- significantly influenced by the treatment of use for concrete production
bined with steel fibers when the elements produced have a significant affecting its properties. So, if large amounts of plastic are used in the
structural performance. Another application of plastic fibers in concrete production of concrete, engineering properties and relationship of the
are the microfibers. These fibers produced with polymers, with length added plastic material within concrete must be known (Barabah et al.,
lower than 54 mm, do not contribute on the structural performance 2019).
but the durability of the fiber reinforced concrete. Since waste plas- Studies reported that these aggregates from plastics represent a wor-
tic presents lower mechanical performance than high density polymers, thy advance in sustainable construction, maximizing thermal and acous-
which are usually used to produce microfibers, they could be used for tic insulation compared to mineral aggregates, and showing better con-
this latter application. struction quality and higher energy conservation (Zhang et al., 2015).
Plastic aggregates are excellent to produce low CO2 concrete that is also
4. Recycled plastic waste as aggregate substitutive intended to reduce the required structural supports and significantly
lower transportation costs. Most literature review studies have focused
Plastic is also utilized as a coarse or fine aggregate in many cases, on the effect of adding plastic wastes on the mechanical properties of
which is very advantageous from an environmental perspective (Fig. 3). concrete, with less focus on the physical properties such as acoustic and
A study (Pacheco-Torgal, 2019) reported the effect of polyethylene thermal insulation properties of concrete. In the following sub-sections
terephthalate (PET) from plastic bottles as a partial substitute for sand these two properties are regarded.

3
A.I. Almohana, M.Y. Abdulwahid, I. Galobardes et al. Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

5. Sound insulation enhancement 6. Thermal insulation enhancement

World Health Organization’s (WHO) defines noise pollution as an un- Thermally insulated lightweight concretes produced with recycled
wanted or excessive sound that can have deleterious effects on human plastic might greatly improve thermal efficiency in building develop-
health and environmental quality (Belmokaddem et al., 2020). Noise ment by using an economical material as an alternative to conventional
coming from the exterior of the building can be controlled by utilizing aggregates. Thermal conductivity decreases when plastic is used as a
sound barriers. There are many acoustic materials used in building con- component in concrete (Basha et al., 2020). By using plastic aggre-
struction for sound insulation purposes. The choice of an appropriate gates within concrete mixes, the thermal insulation is significantly af-
material is very important to meet the acoustic comfort interior of the fected. Different research work was done in the past, and all shows that
residential building (Mustafa et al., 2019). thermal insulation is contrarily relative to thermal opposition. Záleská
The ability of concrete to absorb sound energy is related to its sound et al. (2018) Noticed that the usage of filler materials and plastic waste
absorption coefficient and it is related to a noise reduction value (NRC. as 100% of natural aggregate led to the enhancement of the thermal
Current researches demonstrate that concrete with plastic as a mixture conductivity by 49% as compared to the natural lightweight aggregate
of filler material presents higher absorption capacity than normal con- concrete. The results suggest that concrete could potentially be used in
crete and proved that the NRC value for plastic or lightweight concrete is lightweight applications where low density and high insulation features
57% greater than for normal concrete (Tschiersch et al., 2019; Sabău and are required. Besides, Senhadji et al. (2019) noticed that concrete blocks
Vargas, 2018; Poonyakan et al., 2018). with plastic contents at 50% have significantly decreased thermal con-
Acoustic protection can be estimated utilizing the privately made ductivity. Their study presented the property of concrete block (thermal
acoustic protection estimation tools. The thoughts of reused polymer conductivity) for coarse aggregate replacement using PET plastics. The
materials, in any case, lessen the compressive nature of the changed results showed that the use of 5% PET decreases the volumetric density
concrete and poly squares (Holmes et al., 2014). Moreover, as a result of by 20% and the thermal conductivity by 36%.
having some specific properties, for instance, sound and warmth assur- The thermal conductivity of cement is fundamentally influenced by
ance, and imperative capability of the waste polymer materials, the con- the supplanting of average totals with squander plastic totals. A few
crete/poly squares changed with waste polymers can be utilized as ad- examinations have revealed a reduction in the thermal conductivity of
vancement materials (Medina et al., 2016). The use of plastics has grown types of cement with squander total plastic expansion (Lee et al., 2019;
consistently, as this understanding allows and stores a large amount of Makul, 2020; Thorneycroft et al., 2018). As a general rule, it was tracked
plastic waste on earth (Merli et al., 2020). down that the thermal conductivity was relative to the dry thickness
As an example, studies found that replacing 75% of both fine and (Lee et al., 2019). Two primary reasons were expressed for the reduction
coarse aggregates with PVC plastic waste allows developing a composite in thermal conductivity: (1) squander plastic totals have around multi-
material with interesting acoustic insulation characteristics (Himo et al., ple times lower thermal conductivity contrasted with silica sand (0.28–
2019). The properties given by using PVC in concrete, make the ele- 0.3 W/mK and 1.3–1.4 W/mK, separately), so the composite conductiv-
ments suitable to be used in hospitals. We can also use such type of ity is diminished ((Makul, 2020), 2) the consideration of waste plastic
concrete as an admixture in noisy areas, such as in areas of heavily trav- totals overall causes an increment in air void substance, which addition-
elled roads near houses so that the surrounding area could be protected ally diminishes the thermal conductivity (Jassim, 2017). Concrete fusing
from noise pollution producing longitudinal sound-proof barrier. How- waste reused totals has, along these lines, essentially improved protect-
ever the use of this plastic will also reduce the density up to 19% chang- ing properties contrasted with concrete containing a characteristic total
ing the mechanical performance of the concrete elements (Holmes et al., (Lee et al., 2019).
2014). Sabău and Vargas (2018) mention the effect of plastic waste on
Further, plastic waste is non-biodegradable, reusing such structures the thermal conductivity of concrete containing plastic waste as ag-
provides us with a possible answer to improve the enhancement of the gregate as well. The wastes used were polypropylene (PP), high-
concrete. In that sense, recycled plastic squanders, such as low and high- density polyethene (HDPE), and polyvinylchloride (PVC) based. Differ-
density polyethene (LDPE and HDPE, respectively), polyethene tereph- ent amounts (25, 50, and 75%) of the natural aggregates were substi-
thalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP), are being utilized as an additional tuted with the same volume of plastic aggregates. The results show that
constituent to improve the properties of solid concrete. A non-ionic sur- the use of plastic aggregates in concrete improves its thermal insulation.
factant known as Dehydol LS-12 is used to control the increase in the The lowest thermal conductivity was detected in concrete with 75% of
wetting ability of plastic material (Hashem et al., 2019). At the ideal PVC. Moreover, Uthaichotirat et al. (2020) reported a considerable re-
centralization of various periods of the basic micelle fixation (CMC), an duction in thermal conductivity with the increment in PET plastic waste
interfacial weight and a contact edge are diminished to 31–32 m N/m aggregate content. Concrete with a high content of PET plastic waste ag-
and 65°–68°, freely (Alqahtani and Zafar, 2020). The cement properties gregate (40% and 50% volumetric replacement to natural coarse aggre-
are settled and shown in contrast with the mortar experiments. Poros- gate) can be utilized in structural insulation lightweight concrete mem-
ity increases with the high volume of plastic; however, mass thickness, bers.
warm conductivity, isolating unyielding nature, and compressive quality Tuladhar and Yin (2019) studied the possibility of producing
was obtained (Abdel Tawab et al., 2020). The least warm conductivity is lightweight concrete (1500 kg/m3 ) by utilizing 100% recycled plastic
recorded for solid models whose volume was 30% of LDPE filaments; the aggregate. On the other side, the thermal conductivity of the control
rest of the models were PET, PP, and HDPE independently (Khalil et al., concrete was 1.7 W/mK, while it was around 1.1–0.5 W/mK in the recy-
2017). cled plastic aggregate. Jacob-Vaillancourt and Sorelli (2018) performed
Finally, the pretreatment method used to prepare the aggregates an experimental study on the properties of concrete containing plas-
caused a more fragile grip between the concrete glue and piece elastic; in tic wastes (up to 50%) as a replacement of natural aggregates. Based
this manner, it worked on the capacity to retain the vibration and sound- on the obtained experimental results, a conclusion can be made that
protecting properties of cement. The impacts of freezing and defrosting the designed lightweight concretes containing plastic waste aggregates
do not fundamentally influence the protecting properties (Alqahtani and present a prospective solution from the points of view of both plastic
Zafar, 2020). It was being tracked down that the protection attributes waste disposal and improvement of buildings’ energy efficiency. As a
for all substantial improved at high frequencies. Further, it shows that conclusion the authors stated that thermal insulation relies upon the
the elastic cement can be utilized outwardly of building envelopes to property of the material, including thickness, surface zone, and slope of
assimilate sound through multi-story urbanized buildings; however, it temperature during the consistent moving of heat waves (Iucolano et al.,
requires full-scale nearby testing (Merli et al., 2020). 2013). As per Klein, conductivities for LDPE, PP, and HDPE at 25 °C are

4
A.I. Almohana, M.Y. Abdulwahid, I. Galobardes et al. Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

0.35 W/(m·K), 0.23 W/(m·K), and 0.43 W/(m·K), respectively. Whereas, of energy and improve performance over the lifespan of the buildings.
the conductivities for customary cement were ordinarily about 1.34– However, since plastic wastes have a lower density than the natural ag-
2.92 W/ (m·K), three times higher (Merli et al., 2020). Thus, conduc- gregates (fine and coarse), the overall weight of concrete is diminishing,
tivities for mortar and cement is approximately 2.0 W/ (m·K). Plastic creating lighter concrete and lower structural performance. Hence, the
filaments are relied upon in helping us to diminish the thermal conduc- priority of the construction industry is sustainability and the analysis on
tivities of cement because of their properties (Akçaözoğlu et al., 2013). how to design new non-structural building components with an efficient
That is how the thermal conductivity decreases with the addition of use of plastic waste.
plastic and helps us to use this type of concrete for their desirable and To sum up, the use of plastic in concrete is an optimal solution for
suitable sites. achieving environmental sustainability. Moreover, plastic wastes are
ideal, economical, and safe materials to be utilized within the manu-
7. Economic consideration facturing of lightweight green concrete in buildings development, par-
ticularly for sound insulation, thermal insulation, and for achieving en-
Waste plastics have been used in different ways as fibers and ag- vironmental sustainability.
gregate (including fillers) for preparing concrete mixing. However, the
application of plastic aggregates is more economical and simpler, as it Data Availability
generally involves fewer processing steps compared with that of fibers
(Adela et al., 2020).The rising concern of the environmental damage Data will be made available on request.
caused by the utilization of natural aggregate has led to an interest in
more conservative and cost-effective concrete materials (Attanasio et al.,
2015). A study found that replacing 10% sand by volume with recy- Acknowledgments
cled plastic is a viable proposition that has the potential to save 820
million tons of sand every year (Needhidasan and Sai, 2020). More- The authors acknowledge the College of Engineering Research Cen-
over, when accounting for installation costs, the price margin is dramat- ter and Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University in
ically reduced compared to conventional concrete, as plastic can be in- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for their financial support for the research work
stalled faster and using less labor due to its lightweight nature (Kaur and reported in this article.
Pavía, 2019). References
An study carried out by Hussein and Abd Al-Ameer found that a
polyethylene waste is 25 to 35% as a partial replacement of mortar is Abdel Tawab, O.F., Amin, M.R., Ibrahim, M.M., Abdel Wahab, M., Abd El Rahman, E.N.,
2020. Recycling waste plastic bags as a replacement for cement in production of build-
suitable. It has many benefits, including simplicity, cost, and energy
ing bricks and concrete blocks. J. Waste Resour. Recycl. 1 (2), 202.
savings, and clean recycling, because it is not harming the environ- Adela, Y., Berhanu, M., Gobena, B., 2020. Plastic wastes as a raw material in the concrete
ment. In economic terms, 37% of the gravel cost can be decreased if mix: an alternative approach to manage plastic wastes in developing countries. Int. J.
the plastic bottles are utilized as coarse aggregate in concrete mixing Waste Recours..
Adnan, H.M., Dawood, A.O., 2020. Strength behavior of reinforced concrete beam using
(Siddique et al., 2008). On the other hand, Dhawan et al. (2019) re- re-cycle of PET wastes as synthetic fibres. Case Stud. Construct. Mater. 13, e00367.
ported that the potential benefits of using plastic waste as aggregate Akçaözoğlu, S., Akçaözoğlu, K., Atiş, C.D., 2013. Thermal conductivity, compressive
in concrete mixing are providing new, cost-effective building materials strength and ultrasonic wave velocity of cementitious composite containing waste
PET lightweight aggregate (WPLA). Composites Part B 45 (1), 721–726.
and ensuring the environmental sustainability of the new products. Akinpelu, M.A., Odeyemi, S.O., Olafusi, O.S., Muhammed, F.Z., 2019. Evaluation of split-
The potential use of waste plastic improves the efficiency of con- ting tensile and compressive strength relationship of self-compacting concrete. J. King
struction materials. In that sense, the utilization of plastic in building Saud Univ.-Eng. Sci. 31 (1), 19–25.
Alqahtani, F.K., Zafar, I., 2020. Characterization of processed lightweight aggregate and
concrete decreases the dead load, which will help in reducing the costs its effect on physical properties of concrete. Constr. Build. Mater. 230, 116992.
associated (Senhadji et al., 2019). Hama and Hilal (2017) presented that Aluko, E.O., Nna, V.U., 2014. Impact of noise pollution on human cardiovascular system.
the utilization of crushed E-waste plastic material as conventional and Int. J. Trop. Dis. Health 35–43.
Attanasio, A., Largo, A., Alvarez, I.L., Sonzogni, F., Balaceanu, L., 2015. Sustainable aggre-
other materials in the building construction helps in reducing the cost of
gates from secondary materials for innovative lightweight concrete products. Heron
concrete manufacturing. Besides, a Colombian company has developed 60 (1/2), 5–26.
a plastic brick made from recyclable plastic. As a case study they built Awad, S., et al., 2020. A critical review on date palm tree (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) fibres
and their uses in bio-composites. Waste Biomass Valor..
a classroom in a remote ares in the country. The classrooms using plas-
Awoyera, P.O., Adesina, A., 2020. Plastic wastes to construction products: status, limita-
tic bricks cost approximately $14,500, each compared to conventional tions, and future perspective. Case Stud. Construct. Mater. e00330.
concrete construction at $16,500 (Pacheco et al., 2012). Finally, another Babafemi, A.J., Šavija, B., Paul, S.C., Anggraini, V., 2018. Engineering properties of con-
example is given by Kaur and Pavia (2019), that mention that using re- crete with waste recycled plastic: a review. Sustainability 10 (11), 3875.
Bajracharya, R.M., Manalo, A.C., Karunasena, W., Lau, K.T., 2017. Durability characteris-
cycled plastic (34%) by replacing sand with plastic waste in mortars and tics and property prediction of glass fibre reinforced mixed plastics composites. Com-
concretes leads to lower raw material extraction, with the consequent posites Part B 116, 16–29.
economy in fuel and carbon emissions. Barabah, H.A.G. et al., 2019. Prediction of sound insulation for a middle-class apartment
based on noise site analysis.
Basha, S.I., et al., 2020. Mechanical and thermal properties of lightweight recycled plastic
8. Conclusion aggregate concrete. J. Build. Eng., 101710.
Belmokaddem, M., et al., 2020. Mechanical and physical properties and morphology of
concrete containing plastic waste as aggregate. Constr. Build. Mater. 257, 119559.
Plastic wastes have a global impact on the environment due to pollu- Bendjillali, K., Hadjoudja, M., Chemrouk, M., 2020. Utilizing recycled polypropylene fi-
tion. The spread of this waste in streets, parks, and rivers distorts the as bres as reinforcement for concrete beams. In: Proceedings of the International Con-
major cause of increasing water and soil pollution which has negative ference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction (CIC 2020).
Bui, N.K., Satomi, T., Takahashi, H., 2018. Mechanical properties of concrete containing
impact to fauna, biodiversity and human health and well as the esthetic
100% treated coarse recycled concrete aggregate. Construct. Build. Mater. 496–507
view of the cities. This urges researchers to exploit plastic waste to re- 163.
duce its spread. Specifically, researchers in civil engineering can focus Cajka, R., Marcalikova, Z., Kozielova, M., Mateckova, P., Sucharda, O., 2020. Experiments
on fiber concrete foundation slabs in interaction with the subsoil. Sustainability 12
on using plastic waste in concrete manufacturing.
(9), 3939.
It has been demonstrated that the utilization of plastic within con- Cestari & Sibele. (2020). Plastics could help build a sustainable future – here’s how.
crete upgrades the sound and thermal insulation. Considering the over Da Costa, J.P., Santos, P.S., Duarte, A.C., Rocha-Santos, T., 2016. (Nano) plastics in the
exploitation of quarries to generate new conventional aggregates for environment–sources, fates and effects. Sci. Total Environ. 566, 15–26.
Dhawan, R., Bisht, B.M.S., Kumar, R., Kumari, S., Dhawan, S.K., 2019. Recycling of plastic
concrete, plastic waste usage can reduce the superfluous natural re- waste into tiles with reduced flammability and improved tensile strength. Process Saf.
sources used in building construction. It can also help us save a lot Environ. Prot. 124, 299–307.

5
A.I. Almohana, M.Y. Abdulwahid, I. Galobardes et al. Environmental Challenges 9 (2022) 100626

Eriksson, O., Finnveden, G., 2009. Plastic waste as a fuel - CO2-neutral or not. Energy Pacheco, E.B., Ronchetti, L.M., Masanet, E., 2012. An overview of plastic recycling in Rio
Environ. Sci. 2 (9), 907. de Janeiro. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 60, 140–146.
Ferriz-Papi, J., Thomas, S., 2017. Recycled aggregates from construction and demolition Pacheco-Torgal, F., 2019. Introduction to the use of recycled plastics in eco-efficient con-
waste in the production of concrete blocks. World Acad. Sci. Eng. Technol. 11 (10), crete. In: Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-Efficient Concrete. Woodhead Publishing,
1348–1353. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1132449. pp. 1–8.
Foti, D., 2019. Recycled waste PET for sustainable fiber-reinforced concrete. In: Use of Poonyakan, A., Rachakornkij, M., Wecharatana, M., Smittakorn, W., 2018. Potential use
Recycled Plastics in Eco-Efficient Concrete. Woodhead Publishing, pp. 387–410. of plastic wastes for low thermal conductivity concrete. Materials 11 (10), 1938.
Geyer, R., Jambeck, J.R., Law, K.L., 2017. Production, use, and fate of all plas- Prata, J., Silva, A., da Costa, J., Mouneyrac, C., Walker, T., Duarte, A., Rocha-Santos, T.,
tics ever made. Sci. Adv. 3 (7), e1700782. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ 2019. Solutions and Integrated Strategies for the Control and Mitigation of Plastic and
plastic-production-by-sector. Microplastic Pollution. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16 (13), 2411.
Hama, S.M., Hilal, N.N., 2017. Fresh properties of self-compacting concrete with plastic Ragaert, K., Delva, L., Van Geem, K., 2017. Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid
waste as partial replacement of sand. Int. J. Sustain. Built Environ. 6 (2), 299–308. plastic waste. Waste Manage. 69, 24–58.
Hashem, F.S., Razek, T.A., Mashout, H.A., 2019. Rubber and plastic wastes as alternative Sabău, M., Vargas, J.R., 2018. Use of e-plastic waste in concrete as a partial replacement
refused fuel in cement industry. Constr. Build. Mater. 212, 275–282. of coarse mineral aggregate. Comput. Concrete 21 (4), 377–384.
Himo, R., Zéhil, G.P., Ghnatios, C., 2019. 2D Modeling of the Thermal Conductivity of Santhanam, N., Ramesh, B., Pohsnem, F.K., 2020. Concrete blend with E-waste plastic for
XLPE-Modified Concrete. Congrès Français de Thermique. sustainable future. Mater. Today 22, 959–965.
Holmes, N., Browne, A., Montague, C., 2014. Acoustic properties of concrete panels with Senhadji, Y., Siad, H., Escadeillas, G., Benosman, A.S., Chihaoui, R., Mouli, M., La-
crumb rubber as a fine aggregate replacement. Constr. Build. Mater. 73, 195–204. chemi, M., 2019. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of lightweight com-
Hussein, H.H., & Abd Al-Ameer, O. Use fine PVC waste to improve acoustic and thermal posite mortars containing recycled polyvinyl chloride. Constr. Build. Mater. 195,
insulation of concrete. 198–207.
Iucolano, F., Liguori, B., Caputo, D., Colangelo, F., Cioffi, R., 2013. Recycled plastic ag- Sharma, R., Bansal, P.P., 2016. Use of different forms of waste plastic in concrete–a review.
gregate in mortars composition: effect on physical and mechanical properties. Mater. J. Clean. Prod. 112, 473–482.
Des. 52, 916–922. Siddique, R., Khatib, J., Kaur, I., 2008. Use of recycled plastic in concrete: a review. Waste
Jacob-Vaillancourt, C., Sorelli, L., 2018. Characterization of concrete composites with re- Manage. 28 (10), 1835–1852.
cycled plastic aggregates from postconsumer material streams. Constr. Build. Mater. Singh, R., Ruj, B., 2015. Plastic waste management and disposal techniques - Indian sce-
182, 561–572. nario. Int. J. Plast. Technol. 19 (2), 211–226.
Jassim, A., 2017a. Recycling of polyethylene waste to produce plastic cement. Procedia Snell, C., Tempest, B., Gentry, T., 2017. Comparison of the thermal characteristics of port-
Manuf. 8, 635–642. land cement and geopolymer cement concrete mixes. J. Archit. Eng. 23 (2), 04017002.
Jassim, A.K., 2017b. Recycling of polyethylene waste to produce plastic cement. Procedia Suchorab, Z., Franus, M., Barnat-Hunek, D., 2020. Properties of fibrous concrete made
Manuf. 8, 635–642. doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2017.02.081, Available at:. with plastic optical fibers from E-waste. Materials 13 (10), 2414.
Jnr, A.K.L., Yunana, D., Kamsouloum, P., Webster, M., Wilson, D.C., Cheeseman, C., 2018. Sunil, G., Yang, Y., Jae-Hyung, A., Hor-Gil, H., 2020. Biodegradation of polyethy-
Recycling waste plastics in developing countries: use of low-density polyethylene wa- lene: a brief review. Appl. Biol. Chem. 63 (1). https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/
ter sachets to form plastic bonded sand blocks. Waste Manage. 80, 112–118. innovation/materials/bamboo-hempcrete-recycled-plastic-and-aggregates-welcome-to-
Kaur, G., Pavía, S., 2019. Recycling plastic waste in cement composites for construction. the-new-eco-building-materials/.
Eng. Ireland J.. Thomas, A., et al., 2009. Estimating carbon dioxide emissions for aggregate use. Eng.
Khalil, W.I., et al., 2017. Eco-friendly concrete containing PET plastic waste aggregate. Sustain. 162 (ES2), 81–89. doi:10.1680/ensu.2009.162.
Diyala J. Eng. Sci. 10 (6), 92–105. Thorneycroft, J., Orr, J., Savoikar, P., Ball, R.J., 2018. Performance of struc-
Lee, Z.H., Paul, S.C., Kong, S.Y., Susilawati, S., Yang, X., 2019. Modification of waste tural concrete with recycled plastic waste as a partial replacement for sand.
aggregate PET for improving the concrete properties. Adv. Civil Eng. 2019, 6942052. Constr. Build. Mater. 161, p63–p69. https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-
doi:10.1155/2019/6942052. construction-news/recycling-in-construction/81538/.
Lehne, J., & Preston, F. (2018). Making Concrete Change: Innovation in Low-Carbon Ce- Truchot, B., Fouillen, F., Collet, S., 2018. An experimental evaluation of toxic gas emissions
ment and Concrete. Chatham House Report, Energy Enivronment and Resources De- from vehicle fires. Fire Saf. J. 97, 111–118.
partment: London, UK, 1–66. Tschiersch, R., ABnd Hoppe, C., LIAVER, Gmbh, Co, K.G., 2019. Sound-Absorbing Con-
Li, X., Ling, T.C., Mo, K.H., 2020. Functions and impacts of plastic/rubber wastes as struction Component Having Extinguishing Profiles and Sound Protection Wall U.S.
eco-friendly aggregate in concrete–A review. Constr. Build. Mater. 240, 117869. Patent Application 16/468,721.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210510-how-to-recycle-any-plastic. Tuladhar, R., Yin, S., 2019. Sustainability of using recycled plastic fiber in concrete. In: Use
Makul, N., 2020. Cost-benefit analysis of the production of ready-mixed high-performance of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete. Woodhead Publishing, pp. 441–460.
concrete made with recycled concrete aggregate: a case study in Thailand. Heliyon 6 Uthaichotirat, P., Sukontasukkul, P., Jitsangiam, P., Suksiripattanapong, C., Sata, V., Chin-
(6), e04135. daprasirt, P., 2020. Thermal and sound properties of concrete mixed with high porous
Medina, N.F., Flores-Medina, D., Hernández-Olivares, F., 2016. Influence of fibers partially aggregates from manufacturing waste impregnated with phase change material. J.
coated with rubber from tire recycling as aggregate on the acoustical properties of Build. Eng. 29, 101111.
rubberized concrete. Construct. Build. Mater. 129, 25–36. Valavanidis, A., 2018. Technological Challenges in Plastic Recycling. Can technolog-
Merli, R., Preziosi, M., Acampora, A., Lucchetti, M.C., Petrucci, E., 2020. Recycled fibers ical innnovation tackle the problem of plastic waste? Sci. Rev.. Available at:
in reinforced concrete: a systematic literature review. J. Clean. Prod. 248, 119207. www.chem-tox-ecotox.org/ScientificReviews .
Mokhatar, S.N., Mutalib, N.A.N.A., Budiea, A.M.A., Kamarudin, A.F., Noh, M.M., 2020. Záleská, M., Pavlikova, M., Pokorný, J., Jankovský, O., Pavlík, Z., Černý, R., 2018. Struc-
Strength and structural performance of reinforced concrete beam with artificial plastic tural, mechanical and hygrothermal properties of lightweight concrete based on the
fibre (APF). IOP Conf. Ser. 713 (1), 012028 IOP Publishing. application of waste plastics. Constr. Build. Mater. 180, p1–11.
Mustafa, M.A.T., Hanafi, I., Mahmoud, R., Tayeh, B.A., 2019. Effect of partial replacement Zeyad, A.M., 2020. Effect of fibres types on fresh properties and flexural toughness of
of sand by plastic waste on impact resistance of concrete: experiment and simulation. self-compacting concrete. J. Mater. Res. Technol. 9 (3), 4147–4158.
In: Structures. Elsevier, pp. 519–526 Vol. 20. Zhang, B., Poon, C.S., 2018. Sound insulation properties of rubberized lightweight aggre-
Needhidasan, S., Sai, P., 2020. Demonstration on the limited substitution of coarse aggre- gate concrete. J. Clean. Prod. 172, 3176–3185.
gate with the E-waste plastics in high strength concrete. Mater. Today 22, 1004–1009. Zhang, Z., Provis, J.L., Reid, A., Wang, H., 2015. Mechanical, thermal insulation, thermal
https://theschoolagency.com/plastic-bricks/. resistance, and acoustic absorption properties of geopolymer foam concrete. Cement
Omary, S., Ghorbel, E., Wardeh, G., 2016. Relationships between recycled concrete ag- Concrete Compos. 62, 97–105.
gregates characteristics and recycled aggregates concrete properties. Constr. Build.
Mater. 108, 163–174.