Mechanical behavior of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and geotechnical applications

Abstract

During the last years solid waste disposal has increasing significantly, causing health and environmental problems. In order to study an alternative to mitigate these problems, the re-use of polyethylene- terephthalate bottles as a replacement of conventional lightweight materials used on the leveling or filling of soils is investigated.For this purpose, a mechanical characterization of the PET most popular bottles on the market was carried out. Laboratory test results indicate that PET bottles exhibit compression resistances, which suggest that this material can be used on the construction of lightweight structures.

Keywords

• geotechnical structures
• environmental impact reduction
• Tezontle
• polyethylene terephthalate