Neutralization Treatment for Recycling Construction-Generated Soils

The promotion of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) for a sustainable and better society has been actively implemented in all sectors, including the construction industry. In contrast to other industries, however, the construction industry produces a great amount of waste while using a vast amount of resources. The effective utilization of resources is a hot topic of discussion in the construction industry, and sectors remain wherein the effective management of resource utilization is still in progress. Proper disposal of construction-generated soil is one of the issues that needs attention. This type of soil is primarily alkaline and cannot be disposed of without appropriate treatment. The traditional method of treating construction-generated soil before its disposal is the neutralization titration method, where the soil is mixed with a weak acid until the pH value has been lowered to 7. However, this process is performed according to empirical rules, and the exact amount of acid required has yet to be discovered. Therefore, the aim of this study was to derive a theoretical equation to determine the necessary amount of neutralizer. The theoretical equation was successfully derived, and the consistency of the output results was verified for three different neutralizers. Finally, vegetation tests were conducted on each neutralized soil sample to check its suitability as a vegetation substrate.