Waste Materials to Replace Natural Resources

A number of waste materials were studied on their application into asphalt mixtures. Materials tested were plastic waste as (soft) granular material,ceramic waste from electrical insulators,foundry sand and sintered granulate from burned household waste. Both plastic waste,crushed ceramics and large fractions of sintered household waste could be used as partial replacement for coarse aggregates. Foundry sand could partially replace natural sand in asphalt mixtures. The first step of the study was to find out if the waste materials could satisfy basic requirements and for some if their leaching behavior was acceptable. In the next phase mixtures were designed and mechanical tests were done on several mixtures with waste components to determine indirect tensile strength,stiffness,fatigue. In order to estimate the water sensitivity of some mixtures,retained indirect tension tests were done. The properties are reported and compared with each other and reference mixtures. From the research it becomes clear that it takes a lot of work to replace virgin materials in asphalt mixtures with waste materials.