Study of visco-elastic properties of shoppers waste for its reuse as construction material

Plastic shoppers are made of low molecular weight organic materials. Due to throw away culture and non-decaying properties of shoppers, the waste has increased to alarming level since reuse or recycle industry is incompatible with the waste generation. The waste problems have attracted world-wide recognition and multiple solutions to tackle the problems are under consideration. There exists a great potential for reuse of shopper waste in construction industry. The waste has been used to fabricate compressed shoppers waste (CSW) blocks. This paper discusses the fabrication and testing of CSW-blocks as a construction material and determination of its visco-elastic properties. Based on properties, design charts have been developed for design of structural components using CSW-blocks as material. Application of design charts is also explained. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.