Polymer mortars prepared using a polymeric resin and particles obtained from waste pet bottle

• Mechanical and chemical methods are employed for recycle waste PET.
• PET recycled resin with similar properties to commercial resin is obtained.
• PET recycled resin is used as joint material between PET particles and sand.
• Polymer mortars with acceptable physical and mechanics proprieties are obtained.

Recycling of polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) to produce materials like concrete or mortar is one of the best solutions for disposal of such waste plastics. In this work, waste PET bottles were used to produce an unsaturated-polyester-resin (UPER) by a glycolysis process. This UPER was used as a binding agent to produce mortars polymers. Two mortar groups were produced: the first group varying the ratio sand/UPER and the second group varying the ratio sand/UPER/PET particles. The best mechanical and physical properties were showed by mortars with ratio 80/20 sand/UPER and 78/20/2 sand/UPER/PET particles. Results of this study demonstrate feasibility of reusing PET waste as particles and UPER to produce polymer mortars.