Sustainable Practice in Pavement Engineering through Value-Added Collective Recycling of Waste Plastic and Waste Tyre Rubber

Waste plastics, such as waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage bottles and waste rubber tyres are major municipal solid wastes, which may lead to various environmental problems if they are not appropriately recycled. In this study, the feasibility of collectively recycling the two types of waste into performance-increasing modifiers for asphalt pavements was analyzed. This study aimed to investigate the recycling mechanisms of waste PET-derived additives under the treatment of two amines, triethylenetetramine (TETA) and ethanolamine (EA), and characterize the performances of these additives in modifying rubberized bitumen, a bitumen modified by waste tyre rubber. To this end, infrared spectroscopy and thermal analyses were carried out on the two PET-derived additives (PET–TETA and PET–EA). In addition, infrared spectroscopy, viscosity, dynamic shear rheology, and multiple stress creep recovery tests were performed on the rubberized bitumen samples modified by the two PET-derived additives. We concluded that waste PET can be chemically upcycled into functional additives, which can increase the overall performance of the rubberized bitumen. The recycling method developed in this study not only helps alleviate the landfilling problems of both waste PET plastic and scrap tyres, but also turns these wastes into value-added new materials for building durable pavements.