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Mitigating environmental impact of waste glass materials: review of the existing reclamation options and future outlook

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 10488–10502 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

The environmental impact of waste glass (WG) is one of the major challenges crippling sustainable waste management and mitigation. Reclamation of recycled materials from waste glass remains a tedious task amidst complex technological approaches. The challenge as seen in the global containment measures increase the proportion of waste glass and minimize the existing capacity of landfill space. In many works, findings have shown how best to minimize the impact of waste glass as evidenced in their inclusion as building materials such as cement, mortars, concretes and blocks. The concept of this paper is to appraise previous studies carried out on the use of waste glass as key contributing factor in structural building. The scope of this paper will be broaden to include various successes recorded in the evolution of concrete mixtures containing different proportion of recycle glass. Part of the setbacks noted in the inclusion of these recycled materials as matrix, filler or fibre are also reported in this paper. Also discussed is the durability of glass materials in varying conglomerate involving cement in reinforcement of building and structures. Thermal insulating properties of recycled glass are also considered in this work where considerable energy is saved due to their low thermal conductivity. Based on the analysis of various studies and other factors considered in this paper, it is established that recycled glass materials can be accommodated in structural buildings, while continuous research is necessary to adapt waste glass to high pH value of Portland cement.

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Acknowledgements

The lead author would like to appreciate School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand under the Research Chair, Prof. Thokozani Majozi for providing the necessary platform to conduct this research leading to this manuscript. Appreciation also goes to the National Research foundation (NRF) for the financial support during the Postdoctoral Research fellowship.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request

Funding

The authors are grateful to NRF for funding this research work.

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Affiliations

  1. NRF/DST Chair, Sustainable Process Engineering, School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Oludaisi Adekomaya & Thokozani Majozi

Authors
  1. Oludaisi Adekomaya
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  2. Thokozani Majozi
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Contributions

AO analyzed and interpreted the core data involving the impact of waste glass in construction works. MT double-checked the entire manuscript to ensure journal prescribed format. All authors read and approved the final manuscript

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Correspondence to Oludaisi Adekomaya.

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Adekomaya, O., Majozi, T. Mitigating environmental impact of waste glass materials: review of the existing reclamation options and future outlook. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 10488–10502 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12263-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12263-0

Keywords

  • Glass
  • Recycling
  • Environment
  • Structure
  • Properties