RILEM TC 279 WMR round robin study on waste polyethylene modified bituminous binders: advantages and challenges

inter-laboratory experiments were designed to evaluate the impact of plas-
tic waste blended directly in bitumen and to assess the properties, using
conventional and advanced bituminous binder testing. The blends tar-
geted 5% of plastic waste in 95% bitumen, using two types of polyethy-
lene (PE) primary (pellets) and secondary (shreds) waste. The experiments
showed that the addition of PE waste to bitumen does not alter the chem-
istry of the bitumen, the blending is physical. The DSR results indicate a
strong dependency on the testing temperature as at low temperatures the
composite material bitumen and PE behave both elastically whereas, at
higher temperatures, the bitumen becomes viscoelastic. The MSCR tests
indicated that the neat binder is more sensitive to permanent deformation
compared to the blends with PE. The fatigue performance using the Linear
Amplitude Sweep test showed a better performance in terms of stress and
fatigue life for the PE blends.