Research pick: Greener concrete from waste glass - "The potential use of waste glass powder in slag-based geopolymer concrete – an environmental friendly material"

Research in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management demonstrates how waste glass powder can be used as a substitute for traditional concrete materials, and may have important implications for the construction industry and waste management as well as reducing the environmental burden in terms of landfill and carbon emissions.

P. Manikandan and V. Vasugi of the School of Civil Engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai Campus in India, tested slag-based geopolymer concrete made using a mixture of waste glass powder and sodium hydroxide, 12 molar NaOH solution. The researchers tested the mechanical properties of the resulting concrete and found that the best results were achieved when the mixtures had a specific ratio of materials, using 80% slag and 20% glass powder with a particular concentration of NaOH.

The finding might represent an important opportunity for the industry as well as waste management, given that coloured glass, particularly brown and green bottles, cannot readily be recycled into new glass vessels. Using waste glass powder in concrete production will reduce the amount of waste material that is sent to landfills, while still producing a durable building material. By reducing the amount of cement needed for making concrete there is also the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction and civil engineering industries given that the traditional approach to concrete production generates a large proportion of the world’s carbon emissions, some 8 percent or so.

The researchers utilised artificial neural networks to predict the mechanical properties of the concrete and found that the model’s predictions matched well with the actual results of the experiments, which is promising for the future of formulating concrete from related waste materials.

Overall, the findings of this study offer a potential solution to two important environmental issues: reducing landfill waste and carbon emissions associated with the construction industry. The use of waste glass powder in concrete production could be a significant step towards more sustainable construction practices, while still producing durable and reliable building materials.

Manikandan, P. and Vasugi, V. (2023) ‘The potential use of waste glass powder in slag-based geopolymer concrete – an environmental friendly material’, Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp.291–307.