Creating concrete from soft plastic
Soft plastics used to create sustainable concrete carpark and footpath
A team of engineers from RMIT have partnered with Victorian recycling organisations Replas, RED Group and SR Engineering to create a concrete material made from recycled soft plastics.
Each day 1.3 million pieces of soft plastics are returned by Australians to REDcycle recycling bins across the country. Though wrappers, cling wraps and plastic bags are problematic to recycle.
In an effort to find another stream for these soft plastics to be reused, the RMIT team worked with industry to use Polyrok, a plastic aggregate made from soft plastics, in a concrete carpark and footpath in Frankston.
In collaboration with Replas, RED Group and SR Engineering the team were able to develop a mix methodology and material characterisation to include Polyrok.
The concrete mix design optimised the strength and acoustic energy absorption of the material.