“Paving” it Forward with Recycling Plastic

• Jim Brennan
• Arthur Dlugi
• Maciej Orlowski

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Daly; Nicholas Haas, EIT

In recent years, plastics have become the most common material used for about everything: packages, bottles, cups, and many more products. There is around 275 million tons of global plastic waste per year, and that’s not including the 8 million tons of plastic in the oceans. According to Joe Iosbaker, a recycling coordinator at UIC, our university alone is “collecting about 3 tons of recycled waste a month from the buildings across campus; 90% of that by volume is plastic.” However, plastic can be used again by forming it into pavers. Management of recycled plastics as material for pavers might help reduce the problem and implement the alternative for recycling. Polyethylene is one of the most commonly recycled plastics and can be reused by application of producing plastic pavers. When reusing most types of plastic materials, we can gain less expensive material of poorer quality. This material will not have the same mechanical characteristics as the original plastic. However, obtaining materials with the appropriate characteristics is possible. The process of shriveling and melting of plastic material selected must be adequate to the result that will not take away much of material strength, sustainability, and molding ability.

This project investigates using multiple different thermoplastics to form pavers by producing a method to shred the plastic, melt it, and form it into pavers. These pavers are tested to determine their strength and are compared to conventional pavers. It is envisioned that these pavers can be used in myriad solutions but are primarily intended for pavement applications. Ultimately, this project’s research and analysis indicate that recycled plastic pavers are a viable product that can reduce the amount of plastics thrown into landfills by providing an alternative for reuse.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.