Pranshoo Solanki, technology professor, presented at the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies (SCMT5) which took place on July 14–17 at Kingston University in London. The four-day event was organized by Kingston University. The SCMT5 conference is intended to highlight case studies and research that show new and innovative ways of achieving sustainability of construction materials and technologies. SCMT5 also provided a forum for networking and education with other professionals from around the world who are working in the area of sustainable materials. This conference was sponsored by Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete Institute (ACI, USA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE, USA).
Solanki presented two papers at the conference. Pranshoo Solanki and Samikaran Bhattarai, a technology graduate student collaborated on “Properties of Composite Prepared by Stabilizing Soil with Molten Post-Consumer Plastic Waste Bottles.” This study focused on evaluating the properties of a composite developed by stabilizing soil with molten post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste bottles. A total of five soil-plastic composite mixtures mixes were designed using different PET and soil content. Using the mix designs, cylindrical samples of soil-plastic composite were produced in mold by compacting a mixture containing molten PET and heated soil in accordance with proportions determined from mix design.
The second paper was “Recycling of Single-Stream Waste Glass in Flowable Fill” by Pranshoo Solanki and health sciences professors Thomas Bierma and Guang Jin. Glass is often a byproduct of many municipal recycling programs. However, glass collected through the local single-stream recycling system represents a significant financial burden on the program due to lack of a market for mixed glass. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing recycled glass as a substitute for cement and fly ash in flowable fill. Solanki also chaired two technical sessions at the conference; the first session was “Concrete Constituents/Materials” and the second session was “Concrete Structure and Construction.”
