Can recycled materials such as glass be used in construction materials like concrete?
As America deindustrializes and depletes its natural resources, it must figure out a way to use its accumulated wastes and search for other resources. During this past century, we have created an ever-increasing amount of waste, like glass, which landfills can no longer support. Our mining quarries are depleted. One cement company has started research and development to incorporate glass into its cement mix. It has streamlined the process of including recycled material in industrial processes that favor raw materials due to the depletion and cost of natural raw materials. A major hindrance to using waste glass in concrete is the alkali-silica reaction (ASR). This alkali-aggregate reaction occurs in concrete that contains traditional types of aggregate (i.e. gravel) but increases with the use of glass as the aggregate. The ASR produces an expansion in concrete which contains high-alkali cement (Ramachandran,1981). This expansion and subsequent deterioration take place over months and ye
