Physical and mechanical behaviour of recycled PET fibre reinforced mortar

► Polyethylene terephthalate bottle fibre recycled as fibre-reinforced renders mortar. ► Fibres obtained by simple mechanical cutting from bottles. ► PET fibre incorporation increases the mortar flexural strength and toughness. ► The optimum volume of PET fibre incorporation for a desired workability is 1.5%. This study investigated the utilization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle fibre recycled as fibre-reinforced renders mortar. The fibres were obtained by simple mechanical cutting from bottles. Investigation was carried out on cement-lime mortar samples. Different volumes of fibres, i.e. 0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%, were introduced in dry mortar mixes. Specifically, the mechanical properties as flexure, compressive strengths and mortar toughness were measured. The results indicate that the incorporation of PET fibres significantly improve the flexural strength of mortars with a major improvement in mortar toughness. The maximum volume of PET fibre for a desired workability was 1.5%.