Experimental Investigation on MSW Fine Mixed with Fibers: Fiber Reinforced Waste

Abstract

One of the major problems that every part of the world is fighting today is waste production and how to deal with it, that is, waste management. In India, every city periphery becomes a dump yard for tonnes of waste. This study focused on reducing and reusing the already dumped waste through the technique of landfill mining. The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential use of soil-like material from municipal solid waste (MSW) to replace it as fill material, for which chemical as well as geotechnical investigations were made on MSW fines. Further, this waste is reinforced with fibers (part of the waste itself) in a portion of 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 4%, 8%, and 10% by weight and is investigated for optimum quantity for geotechnical purpose. The MSW fines characterized as light-weight, nonplastic silty sand-type material with good shear strength properties (cohesion and friction angle from 31.37 to 42.19 kPa and 26.69° to 30.74°, respectively) with an organic content of 5.9% and slight acidic behavior. The addition of fibers enhances the strength properties of MSW fines and optimized results were found for 8% fiber. The results from this study can be an initial step to check the potential use of MSW in various civil engineering fields. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.