Recycling of End-of-Life Tires (ELTs) for Sustainable Geotechnical Applications: A New Zealand Perspective
Source abstract
Abstract
End-of-life tires (ELTs) are tires, unusable in their original form, which go into a waste management scheme (for recycling and energy recovery purposes), or otherwise are disposed. In New Zealand, the annual disposal of 3.5 million ELTs is posing critical environmental and socio-economic issues, and the reuse of ELTs through large-volume recycling engineering projects is a necessity. In this study, gravel and recycled granulated rubber were mixed to explore the possibility of obtaining synthetic granular geomaterials (with adequate geotechnical and environmental characteristics) that are suitable as structural fills for geotechnical applications including foundation systems for low-rise light-weight residential buildings. Moreover, an original framework with a set of geo-environmental criteria is proposed for the acceptance of gravel–rubber mixtures (GRMs) as structural fills. It is shown that when gravel-size like rubber particles are used, GRMs with volumetric rubber content of 40% or less have adequate strength (ϕ’ > 30°), low compressibility (εv ≤ 3%), excellent energy adsorption properties, and acceptable leachate metal concentration values (e.g., Zn < 1 mg/L), making them ideal synthetic structural fill materials for many sustainable geotechnical applications.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Stabilization · Geotechnical and construction materials studies · Landfill Environmental Impact Studies
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd., Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
Funding
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
References (49)
Show source-provided references
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