Materials Science Forum Vol. 803 (2015) pp 16-20 Submitted: 10.07.

2014
Online available since 2014/Aug/28 at www.scientific.net Accepted: 11.07.2014
© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.803.16

Utilization of Recycled Glass Waste as Partial Replacement of Fine

Aggregate In Concrete Production
Nur Liza Rahim1,a,*, Roshazita Che Amat 1,b, Norlia Mohamad Ibrahim1,c,
Shamshinar Salehuddin 1,d,
Syakirah Afiza Mohammed1,e and Mustaqqim Abdul Rahim1,d
1
School Of Environmental Engineering, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 3,
University Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
a,*
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
d
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: Glass Dust Waste, Recycled Glass, Recycle Material in Concrete, Compressive
Strength

Abstract. Glass dust waste creates chronic environmental problems, mainly due to the
inconsistency of waste glass streams. Glass is widely used in our lives through manufactured
products such as sheet glass, bottles, glassware, and vacuum tubing. Glass is an ideal material for
recycling. The use of recycled glass helps in energy saving. The increasing awareness of glass
recycling speeds up inspections on the use of waste glass with different forms in various fields. One
of its significant contributions is to the construction field where the waste glass was reused for
concrete production. The properties of concretes containing glass dust waste as fine aggregate were
investigated in this study. Glass dust waste was used as a partial replacement for sand at 10%, 20%
and 50% of concrete mixes. Compression strength for 7, 14 and 28 days concrete of age were
compared with those of concrete made with natural fine aggregates. The results proved that highest
strength activity given by glass dust waste after 28 days. The compressive strength of specimens
with 10% glass dust waste content were 32.9373 MPa, higher than the concrete control specimen at
28 days. Using glass dust waste in concrete is an interesting possibility for economy on waste
disposal sites and conservation of natural resources.

Introduction
Nowadays, many recycling company realize that they gain little or even have a loss of income by
processing glass. The general process recycling included of collecting, sorting, transporting,
beneficiating, and manufacturing glass back into bottles, is the most common form of glass
recycling and has costs embedded in each step of the process [1]. Glass is produced in many forms,
including packaging or container glass, flat glass, bulb glass, and cathode ray tube glass. All of each
type of glass have a limited life in the form in which they are produced and need to be reused in
order to avoid environmental problems [2]. The plain glass dust waste can be recycled, but it is
costly to remove the color of colored glasses and recycle again [3]. The glass waste was collected
from shops with type bottles. Cathode ray tube glass (TV screens, monitors, etc.) was not used in
this study due to concern about hazardous metals content. The total amount of glass in the
Malaysian waste stream for 1994 was around 315 t/day or 114 975 t/year. The average market
selling price at source for bottles for that year was US$0.03/kg or US$32/t. Thus, the expected
revenue from separating and selling glass at source is about US$3.7 million/year. Assuming that
only 5% of glass or bottles from the waste stream could be recycled, the estimated revenue is about
US$0.2 million/year [4]. An estimated 80% of recovered glass containers are made into new glass
bottles. In 2007, 34.5% of glass beer and soft drink bottles were recycled and 28.1% of all glass
containers. Glass recycling rates are higher in some states, especially those with mandatory
beverage container deposits. In California, for example, glass bottle recycling nears 70% [5].
Glass containers compositions from abundant raw materials are sand, soda ash, limestone and
cullet. The proportion of raw materials is based on availability, chemical and physical consistency,
sizing, purity and cost. The goal is to use the most economical and high-quality raw materials

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 Materials Science Forum Vol. 803 17

available. Glass containers are commonly made with a combination of various oxides or oxygen-
based compounds and are commonly referred to as “Soda-Lime” glass. The combining of raw
materials creates glass containers that are durable, strong, impermeable, easily shaped, and
inexpensive. Some oxides will form glass without adding any other elements and are known as
network formers. The most common of these is silica (SiO²), [6].
Using waste glass in the concrete construction sector is advantageous, as the production cost of
concrete will go down. The amount of waste glass is gradually increased over the years due to an
ever-growing use of glass products. Most of the waste glasses have been dumped into landfill sites.
The land filling of waste glasses is undesirable because they are not biodegradable, which makes
them environmentally less friendly. There is huge potential for using waste glass in the concrete
construction sector. When waste glasses are reused in making concrete products, the production
cost of concrete will go down [7]. Glass concrete products can be categorized as commodity
products and value-added products. For simple commodity products, the primary objective is to
utilize as much waste glass as possible. This research has been conducted to identify the suitable
composition of glass dust waste as fine aggregate replacement material in concrete and also to study
the compressive strength of concrete.

Materials And Method

Materials
Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly with no loss in quality or purity. Glass
recycling is a closed loop system, creating no additional waste or by-products. Material that use for
glass dust waste as fine aggregate replacement material in concrete are shown below where sheet
glass collected from shops is shown in Fig. 1, sheet glass crushed is shown in Fig. 2 and sheet glass
powder is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 1: Waste glass Fig. 2: Crushed waste glass

Fig. 3: Glass waste

Methods
Glass dust waste was used in mixture proportioning of the raw materials in concrete. Collected
wastes glass are crushed into small pieces manually, then the sieve machine was used to make the
graded below 4.75 mm. The procedure of making glass dust waste concrete is shown in Fig. 4.
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was used in this project. The sand used for this study is locally
18 Geopolymer and Green Technology Materials

available river sand. The coarse aggregate is a normal weight aggregate with a maximum size of 20
mm. Concrete grade 20 was selected with proportion mix cement:sand:coarse 1:2:4 by volume. The
sand was replaced with 10%, 20% and 50% glass dust waste. Concrete mixes were cured for 7 days,
14 days and 28 days. This project start with 36 cubes concrete with size 100 mm x 100 mm x 100
mm and each were cast in accordance to relevant standard. The maximum free water cement ratio
use is 0.55-0.6.

Waster glass collected from shops

Collected waste glass are crushed into small pieces

manually

Sieving by using the sieve machine

(below 4.75mm)

Sieved & graded

(> 150microns)

Mix design for 0%, 10%, 20 % and 50% of glass dust

waste variation in sand

Compression test

Optimized crushed waste glass content in concrete

Fig. 4: Procedure of making glass dust waste concrete

The molds were coated with mineral oil to ensure that no water escaped during filling and to
prevent adhesion of concrete. Concrete casting was accomplished in three layers. Each layer was
compacted by using a vibrating table for 1–15 minute until no air bubbles emerged from the surface
of the concrete mold. The sample were dried for 24 hour, the sample was removed from the molds
and immediately submerged in fresh clean water for curing in the specific time and ready for testing
[8].

Results And Discussion

Concrete cubes were prepared according to BS.1881:1952. The cubes were tested immediately after
being taken from water storage and while they were still wet. The average of the compression
strengths of three cubes was recorded for each testing age. The box compression test measures the
compressive strength of concrete. It provides a plot of deformation versus compressive force.
Conditioning of concrete is standard temperature and humidity during testing. Fig. 5 shows the
effect of the percentage of glass dust waste on the value of compressive strength.
 Materials Science Forum Vol. 803 19

35

Compressive Strength
30
25
0 % Glass
(MPa)
20
10 % Glass
15
20 % Glass
10
50 % Glass
5
0
7 Days 14 Days 28 Days

Fig. 5: Compressive strength results

The observation was made based on the performance of compression strength (MPa). The
compressive strengths of the waste glass concrete mixes at 7, 14, and 28 days are presented in Fig. 5
where it illustrates the increment ratios in compressive strength. Based on the test results, the best
28 day compressive strength value of 32.9 MPa was obtained from the concrete mix made of 10%
glass dust waste fine aggregate, which represents an increase in the compressive strength of up to
13.6% as compared to the control concrete. The 10% waste glass concrete mixes showed
compressive strength values that are higher than those of the plain mixes, except for the 20% and
50% concrete mixes.
The low compressive strength of the 20% and 50% waste glass concrete has been attributed to
the decrease in the adhesive strength between the surface of the waste glass aggregates and the
cement paste. Addition of glass dust waste of less than 10 % into the mix has the potential benefit of
increasing the compressive strength of concrete. The higher percentage of glass dust waste in the
mix contribute more water because glass dust did not absorb water as fine aggregate. This affect the
strength development of the concrete. The increasing of the weight is caused by the water
absorption of sand only as shown in Fig. 6. The 10% glass dust waste concrete has higher weight
than the 50% glass dust waste concrete. Higher quantity of glass dust cause decreased in water
absorption and weaken the concrete compressive strength. Glass dust waste did not have the
characteristic of saturated surface dry and this will lead to a decrease in compressive strength when
there is excess water in the concrete. Glass dust waste is weaker and did not absorbs more water
compared to natural aggregate leading to low compressive strength.

2.5
Concrete Weight (kg)

2.45
2.4 50% glass
2.35 20% glass
10% glass
2.3
0% glass
2.25
2.2
24 hour 7 days 14 days 28 days

Fig. 6: Concrete density results

20 Geopolymer and Green Technology Materials

Conclusion
Results from this research confirm that the usage of glass waste as fine aggregate replacement
material in concrete is effective and can use in the future. The effect of glass waste in concrete is
more obvious at the later age of 28 days. The optimum percentage of glass waste that gives the
maximum values of compressive strengths is 10%. This study intended to find effective ways to
reuse waste glass as fine aggregate in concrete. The data presented in this paper show that there is a
promising potential for the use of waste glass in concrete; further investigations may be considered
regarding its long-term effect on concrete properties.

Acknowledgement
This study was funded by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (9003– 00327). We would like to
extend our appreciation to the School of Environmental Engineering and University Malaysia Perlis
(UniMAP).

References
[1] C.Meyer, N.Egosi, & C.Andela (2001). Concrete With Waste Glass As Aggregate. Journal of
Recycling and Re-use of Glass Cullet. United Stated, America.
[2] Mahmoud Nili, Mahdi Hoseinian, Nader Biglari Joo, & Siavash Ahmadi (2011). Assessing
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[3] M. Mageswari & Dr. B.Vidivelli (2010). The Use of Sheet Glass Powder as Fine Aggregate
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[4] Zainab Z. Ismail & Enas A. AL-Hashmi (2008). Recycling of Waste Glass as A Partial
Replacement for Fine Aggregate in Concrete. Journal of Waste Management. 29, 655–659.
[5] Tarun R.Naik (2002). Greener Concrete Using Recycled Material. Journal of Concrete
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[6] Zainab Z. Ismail & Enas A. AL-Hashmi (2008). Recycling of Waste Glass as A Partial
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Concrete Res. 34: 267–274.
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Geopolymer and Green Technology Materials
10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.803

Utilization of Recycled Glass Waste as Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregate in Concrete Production
10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.803.16