Abstract

In general, the quantity of plastics of all typesconsumed annually all over the world has been growing in aphenomenal way. The manufacturing processes, serviceindustries and municipal solid wastes (MSW) generatenumerous waste plastic materials. The increasing awarenessabout the environment has tremendously contributed to theconcerns related with disposal of the generated wastes. It isbelieved that the management of solid waste is one of the majorenvironmental concerns in the world. Due to limited space onlandfills and increasing costs of plastics, utilization of wasteplastics has become an attractive alternative for disposal. Thispaper provides a summary of experimental efforts on theutilization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in civilengineering projects, mainly in road pavement, cements andconcretes. Presented data indicate that use of waste PET formodification of asphalt, cement and concretes improved theirselected properties, which makes economical this approach.Furthermore, using of waste PET in building materials reduceusage of new polymeric materials, which has significant effect onenvironment pollution (e.g. emission of carbon dioxide, wastedisposal problems, etc.).