ABSTRACT
Population expansion and rapid infrastructure development pose challenges hitherto unknown and not experienced to the civil engineering fraternity worldwide. Alongside the challenge of finding new suitable land area is the perhaps graver challenge of having to dispose off more waste materials. As a result of global industrialization, extensive amounts of waste are generated daily from various industries and human activities. Reuse of waste materials sustainably in civil engineering applications such as roads, pavements, and embankments will reduce the demand for scarce virgin natural resources and simultaneously reduce the quantity of waste material destined for landfills. Appropriately treated sewage sludge, termed biosolids, consisting of untreated organic slurry residue derived from wastewater treatment processes may be used as a substitute for virgin soil for various geotechnical applications. However, that requires the proper geotechnical and environmental characterization.
Many authors have previously attempted to characterise biosolids from different regions and have come to an understanding that the properties of biosolids change in accordance with location, age, type of waste etc. Thus, for proper utilization of biosolids, an initial characterisation is required. This paper focuses on characterisation of biosolids from Trivandrum, Kerala for exploring its possible use in future geotechnical applications in large scale. Although it showed trends similar to organic fine grained soil of high plasticity with good shear strength properties, excessive settlements may be expected upon loading. That said, biosolids can replace presently used fine grained soils for various geotechnical applications upon some further treatment. Sustainability and reuse of waste materials combined with cost effectiveness connotes to possible future investment of time, money and resources in further development of the technique.
