ABSTRACT
In this age of tremendous industrialization, plastic waste has become a threat to the environment. However, several past researchers have sought to repurpose plastic waste as a new material or substitute material to develop a functioning material form. Plastic waste can be transformed into a substitute for aggregate or even fiber in concrete, improving the performance of the concrete in resisting tension while lowering the necessary production costs. Self-healing concrete is one of the building material improvements that can solve a critical problem in reinforced concrete: cracks caused by internal and external work events. This material has a healing mechanism that involves the activation of bacteria that have been added to fresh concrete, preventing aggressive compounds from entering the internal concrete and causing more severe oxidation of the reinforcement. Several studies have shown that self-healing concrete can boost the durability of concrete by enhancing its mechanical properties compared to regular concrete. Plastic waste is projected to build an excellent synergy with self-healing concrete, resulting in high-performance concrete. The use of these materials can help the construction sector attain green chemistry. Compared to steel fiber, which requires a lot of energy, costs a lot of money, and is prone to corrosion, adding plastic waste offers a better, safer, and more efficient environment. With the use of healing chemicals to boost the microstructure strength of the cement, self-healing concrete also helps the realization of green chemistry in the future cement industry. This approach has the potential to cut carbon emissions from future cement production. The potential characterization of self-healing concrete with the substitution of plastic waste will be covered in detail in this chapter.
