Incorporation of plastic waste into road pavements: A systematic literature review on the fatigue and rutting performances

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2023-12, Vol.407, p.133441, Article 133441
• Main Authors: Cardoso, Josué, Ferreira, Adelino, Almeida, Arminda, Santos, João
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asphalt mixtures; Fatigue performance; Plastic waste; Road pavements; Rutting performance
• ISSN: 0950-0618
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2023.133441

•Systematic review of the literature regarding the incorporation of plastic waste into asphalt mixtures.•Analysis of the impact of incorporating plastic waste on rutting and fatigue performances.•Plastic waste incorporation extends pavement life and helps to mitigate plastic pollution. The disposal of plastic waste has become a great challenge for the current generation due to the large-scale production and non-degradable properties of plastics. Additionally, fatigue and rutting are the most common problems that bituminous pavements face. Thus, the incorporation of plastic waste into road pavements has been studied as a possible solution to help mitigate the problems related to plastic disposal and possibly improve the performance of road pavements. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature regarding the incorporation of plastic waste into asphalt mixtures and its impact on rutting and fatigue performance. The main objective is to evaluate the effect of adding plastic on rutting and fatigue performance by analyzing the results of the most commonly performed laboratory tests reported in a dataset, systematically selected following the PRISMA 2020 methodology for systematic reviews. Although deeper research considering short- and long-term ageing is still necessary, the incorporation of plastic waste generally improves the rutting resistance of asphalt mixtures. However, the effect on fatigue behaviour is not clear yet. Finally, it can be said that plastic waste has the potential to be incorporated into asphalt mixtures and help mitigate the environmental problem related to its disposal.