ABSTRACT
High-impact polystyrene (HIPS) derived from electrical and electronic equipment waste, termed eW-HIPS, face numerous recycling challenges due to a wide range of additives incorporated into the plastic during manufacturing and various stages of degradation at its end of life. These challenges have resulted in the disposal of eW-HIPS in landfills or used in applications which could endanger the health of the user, whereby it could have instead been used as aggregate in concrete. This paper assesses the compressive strength of concrete made using granulated eW-HIPS to replace the coarse fraction of mineral aggregate by volume (5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) at 1, 3, 7, 28, 90 and 180 days using a water:cement ratio of 0.6 and 0.4. The results show that all eW-HIPS replacements in concrete, but 100% using a water:cement ratio of 0.6, achieve structural strength (> 25MPa) at 28 days of curing.
