Integrating Environmental Science and Engineering Management: Harnessing Polyethylene Waste for Sustainable Soil Stabilization

Abstract

Soil plays a significant role within the survival of living beings on earth. In line with engineering, soil is one of the most relevant material resources used in different fields of work. In constructing roadway or highway structures, soil is the first thing you need to consider because it serves as the foundation where loads rest. Soil Stabilization is one of the methods used in improving the engineering property of soil to make it suitable and strong enough to bear forces. The conventional materials being used to stabilize the soil are cement, lime and chemicals. In this study, the researchers examined another material which could be an agent also for soil stabilization. With rapid increase of population globally, the demand in plastic materials especially polyethylene bags is also growing exponentially. Thus, the disposals of these have been a serious challenge to mankind. This research offers a study on the behavior of plastic waste strips as a soil stabilizing material. The materials used are polyethylene bags and polypropylene straws that have been cut into strips and locally available soil which is found to be clayey type of soil by conducting Sieve Analysis and Atterberg Limits Test. Series of Compaction Test and California Bearing Ratio Test with varying percentage of plastic strips are done to obtain data and information about the relevance of using the said material as a soil stabilizer. It is concluded that to achieve the maximum increase in CBR value of the clayey soil, the optimum plastic strips content is 1% of the weight of dry soil and further increase will only lower the CBR strength of the soil.