Popular Stone

Long description

There is an increasing concern with the quantity and form of waste disposal of the most varied materials, especially plastics, mainly from industrial production processes and post-consumption itself, impacting the anthropic effect on the environment day by day .
The Popular Stone project aims to produce structural blocks for civil construction, using plastic waste, as a light aggregate in conventional concrete. Initially, the mixtures were prepared in two different conditions: from the partial replacement of medium natural sand or industrial sand, with plastic residue in percentages of 20%, 30% and 40%, in relation to the volume of sand. The curing of the specimens was carried out at room temperature for 24 hours, and after that, in a 10% lime solution until the time of the tests, at 7 and 28 days. The laboratory results indicated compression strengths higher than those required by the standard.
Therefore, based on these results, it is concluded that mixtures containing up to 40% of plastic waste have the potential to be used in the manufacture of structural blocks, in a technically and economically viable way.
In this way, there is a win-win relationship, where by using the waste partially replacing the sand, the consumption of sand is reduced, a lighter, cheaper structural element is obtained, in addition to mitigating the anthropic impact.

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