Paper Title
The Effect of using Plastic Waste Aggregate on the Strength of Concrete

Abstract
In this study, the use of hard density plastic waste as volumetric replacement to natural coarse aggregate was investigated to produce sustainable concrete. Different volumetric replacement percentages of plastic waste natural coarse aggregate (15% and 30%) were used in concrete in addition to reference concrete with natural coarse aggregate. Concrete specimens casted, some of these specimens continuously cured in water for 14 and 28 day and others cured with wet burlap. The workability, dry density, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete specimens were investigated. In general, the workability of fresh concrete is improved with the use of plastic waste causes a decrease of oven dry density. Concrete specimens 15% and 30% volumetric replacement of plastic coarse aggregate subjected to wet burlap curing method the percentages reduction in splitting strength are 20.5% and 8.2% for 14 day curing age , and 14% and 3.5% for 28 day curing age respectively relative to concrete specimens without plastic waste aggregate. In flexural, specimens subjected to wet burlap curing method with 15% and 30% volumetric replacement of plastic coarse aggregate, the percentages reduction in flexural strength are 12.2% and 3% for 14 day curing age , and 21.5% and 13.3% for 28 day curing age respectively relative to concrete specimens without plastic waste aggregate. Concrete specimens wet burlap cured has higher splitting and flexural strength in comparison those cured continuously with water at all ages. Index Terms - Plastic waste; Concrete; Tensile strength.