An overview on the properties of eco-friendly concrete paving blocks incorporating selected waste materials as aggregate

Paving block is a widely used pavement material due to its long service life, fast and easy production and easily replaced for maintenance purpose. The huge production volume of paving blocks consumes large amount of natural aggregates such as sand and granite. Therefore, there is a necessity to review the utilization of alternative materials as the aggregate replacement to cut down both the consumption of natural resources and disposal of various waste. This paper thus analyses published works and provides a summary of knowledge on the effect of utilizing selected waste materials such as soda-lime glass, cathode ray tube (CRT) glass, recycled concrete waste, marble waste, crumb rubber (CR) waste and waste foundry sand (WFS) as aggregate replacement in concrete paving blocks fabrication. The influence of each waste material on the properties of paving block is discussed and highlighted in this paper. The adherence of the waste material paving block to the standard requirements is also presented to provide a clear direction on the utilization of these materials for practical application. Soda-lime glass, CRT glass, pre-treated RCA and calcined WFS have the potential to be utilized in high quantities (30–100%), normal RCA and marble waste can be incorporated in moderate amount (30%) while CR waste and WFS is limited to low amount (6–10%). In overall, the usage of waste materials as aggregate replacement has good potential for producing eco-friendly concrete paving block towards the sustainable development of construction material.