In the March 29, 2019 edition of Resource Recycling, Jared Paben reported that researchers at the Vellore Institute of Technology in India found they could use granules of high-impact polystyrene from scrap electronics as a replacement for sand in self-compacting concrete. They also studied using fly ash from a power plant as a replacement for cement. They found HIPS and fly ash could be used at levels of up to 30 percent without significantly reducing strength, according to their paper, which was published in February in the journal Buildings. Self-compacting lightweight concrete is generally used on long-span bridges, the paper noted.
Read the full article from Resource Recycling at https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2019/03/29/how-e-plastics-could-become-feedstock-for-concrete/. To read the researchers’ article in the February 2019 edition of Buildings, see https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/9/2/50/htm. (Buildings 2019, 9(2), 50; doi:10.3390/buildings9020050)