RRL

The Advantages of Waste Glass as a Potential Component for Sand in Cement

Glass can be recycled completely and infinitely without losing any of its chemical and physical

properties. But, broken and mixed color waste glass makes the recycling process impractical and

highly expensive because these materials can cause a variation in the chemical composition of

the recycled glass. Construction industry, especially the cement and concrete industry, can

provide a very important and useful solution for the environmental impact of glass waste, due to

the chemical composition and the physical properties of glass which are similar to that of sand

and cement (Jani et al., 2014).

Relevant sentence (Olofinnade et al., 2018), it is important to note that waste recycle and reuse

are also sustainable ways of improving and preserving the environment. This is an effective way

to reduce waste, extend the lifespan of landfills, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, save

energy, and preserve of natural resources. Waste glass offers equal alternative options as a

replacement material for conventional aggregate in concrete and incorporating crushed granular

waste glass as aggregate in concrete not only benefits the environment but also reduces the need

for extracting raw materials.

According to Jani et al.,(2014), The use of waste glass in the production of cement and concrete

conserves the earth’s natural resources, saves energy and money and reduce the emission of CO2
and other greenhouse gases. Moreover, as stated by Tamanna et al., (2020), Crushed glass is

considered as a good alternative for sand because of its chemical composition and physical

characteristics. In addition, due to the smooth surface and relatively low water absorption, glass

sand can improve the fresh concrete properties.

Recycling of WG by transforming it to fine aggregate leads to save landfill place and reduces

the extraction demand of natural raw materials for construction sector. Glass aggregate is strong

but brittle, it has angular shape and relatively smooth texture. It is low in shrinkage and water

absorption, and it is high in resistance to wear (Ibrahim, 2017).

It was found that using waste glass as a fine aggregate can achieve good interfacial bonding

between cement paste and glass aggregates and that the glass aggregates act as crack arrestors,

preventing cracks from propagating through them (Abdallah et al., 2014). Relevant sentence

(Shekhawat et al., 2014) Waste glass when grounded to a very fine powder shows some

pozzolanic properties because of silica content. Therefore the glass powder to some extent can

replace the cement and contributes for the strength development and also enhances durability

characteristics.