Tezislər / Theses

USE OF RECYCLED PLASTICS IN ASPHALT PAVEMENTS 
Aydan Guliyeva, Meyvagul Hajiyeva, Sabina Gozalova 
Baku Higher Oil School 
Baku, Azerbaijan 
[e-mail], [e-mail], 
[e-mail] 
Supervisor: Amir Vakhshouri 
Keywords:
recycled plastics, modified asphalt, wet/dry process 
The waste plastics have the detrimental effect on the marine and 
terrestriall ecosystems. Therefore, recycling is considered the environmentally-
friendly way to diminish the ecological impact as it causes to the reduction of 
carbon dioxide emissions, oil usage and the waste disposal. Reuse and 
recycling waste plastics has become popular all over the world and substantial 
improvement has been made toward the utilizing the waste plastics in asphalt 
pavements. Incorporation of plastic waste with asphalt mix leads to the 
asphalt mixture, which is known as the “Plastic Roads”. This technology is 
utilized by numerous countries, including the United States, India, Indonesia, 
Australia and the United Kingdom. 
The use of plastic roads has many benefits in terms of cost, environmental 
aspects, flexibility and durability. In general, plastic roads are the result of 
modified asphalt. Modified asphalt is obtained by the use of virgin polymers. 
However, they are not advantageous due to their cost and inaccessibility. In 
that case, the application of waste plastics becomes a good alternative for 
modified asphalt which is also considered as an eco-friendly way. As an 
example, a project conducted by mixing 4500 printer cartridges, 63000 glass 
bottles and 200000 plastics with asphalt pavement indicated that fatigue 
resistance and rutting improved and the cost was less compared to polymer 
modified asphalt. (White, 2018) Another research with the application of 
plastics also shows that temperature performance and binding properties 
enhanced. 
A road with 3.75 m width and 1000 m length saves 1 ton of asphalt binder 
if waste plastic is used as a substitute. In addition, the approximate lifetime 
of this road is considered as 7 years. (R. Vasudevan, 2012) On the other 
hand, melting of plastics has a negative impact on the environment. 
Therefore, further investigations should be taken to solve this issue. (L. 
Brasileiro, 2019) 
In general, there are two main ways to get modified asphalt with the use 
of waste plastics: Dry process, wet process (K.A. Ghuzlan, 2013) 
Wet process is a bit difficult to conduct because it requires more 
equipment and machinery. By contrast, in dry process waste plastics mixed 
directly. (D. Movilla-Quesada, 2019) 

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