Utilizing Plastic Waste in Construction Materials: A Review

Inefficient solid waste management of plastics and polymeric materials is one among the biggest challenges worldwide, resulting in environmental deterioration. Observations in the domain of plastic waste management have indicated that the process of incineration has become the most widely accepted disposal strategy worldwide. However, due to poor maintenance of incinerators, it releases several harmful gases including dioxins and furans in case of chlorinated and brominated plastic waste thus raising several environmental issues. This challenge has brought alarming concerns regarding minimizing the volume of such wastes released into the environment. This review paper presents an extensive study and proposes a solution to this problem to some extent by reuse, recycling, and efficient conversion of waste materials into alternative application such as utilization of plastic waste in road construction, co-processing of plastic waste in cement kilns etc. Some of such newly employed recycling and conversion techniques of plastic wastes, and possible future alternatives with recommendations are reviewed in this paper, with emphasis given to the recycling potential, specifically in the construction industry.