ABSTRACT
Millions of tons of glass end up in landfills every year. The glass in landfills can cause puncturing of the geomembrane and/or clay liner, which protects other chemicals from leaking into the soil and ultimately the groundwater supply. In the state of Mississippi, there is no glass recycling facility. Accordingly, all the household and industrial glass waste ends up in landfills, and it can create a potential problem during the landfill’s lifespan. Glass is nearly 100% recyclable and can be substituted for up to 95% of raw materials in new glassware. However, this reuse of glass is often limited by the color of the glass containers. Also, the collection, transportation, and processing of glass waste for recycling can be very costly and time-consuming. Repurposing waste glass by integrating it into roadbeds for stabilization would be an efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable solution. However, proving this concept requires a set of laboratory experiments. Utilizing recycled glass can be an alternative method to using lime or fly ash to stabilize the roadbed. In this study, Atterberg limits and the standard proctor tests were performed with bentonite clay and varying crushed glass sizes. The proper mix of recycled glass and bentonite showed promising results in minimizing the liquid limit, plastic limit, and optimum moisture content. The results indicated that recycled glass has a great potential for the stabilization of expansive clays in transportation applications.
