One of the most potential environmental challenges around the world is that billions of tons of solid waste are being generated annually. The wastes can be recycled and reused to reduce the consumption of quarry-based virgin materials, alleviate disposal into landfills, and minimize greenhouse emissions Surprisingly, about 30% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution are being generated by pavement-related industries. In addition, large amounts of virgin and natural materials and resources are being consumed by these same industries. Construction and demolition (C&D) materials, such as recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and crushed rock (CR), as well as solid wastes, such as glass and scrap tires, comprise a significant proportion of all the generated wastes around the world. Therefore, recycling and reusing of the wastes in road applications, instead of natural resources, will significantly result in decreasing the carbon footprint of pavements.
Use of natural resources for making glass and landfilling of waste glass is considered for environmental concerns. About 15 million tons, 10 million tons and 1 million tons of waste glasses are annually stockpiled in European Union, United States, and Australia, respectively. Around 64 kg of feldspar, 176 kg of limestone, 190 kg of soda ash, and 560 kg of sand are conserved by recycling one ton of waste glass. Waste glass has been also used for different civil applications, such as an aggregate in asphalt, base, and subbase of pavements, aggregate in concrete, lightweight engineering material, and cementitious material.
At present, numerous research studies are conducting by RMIT Researchers in order to evaluate the effect of crushed glass for range of construction applications.
