RESEARCH TITLE

Utilization of Recycled Fish Net Waste Nylon Fibres for Fibre Reinforced Concrete.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Today, synthetic fibres are widely used in all market areas where the use of this material is increasing
every year. When come to extensively use of the quantity of synthetic fibres, it provides a lot of waste
disposal. According to (IMPAK, 2006), Malaysian generates an average of 1.7kg per day/person of
solid waste especially in major cities. If all waste is collected every day, estimated at more than
15,000 tonnes, it will tower at a height of 4 times Kuala Lumpur Tower. In as much as the very
essence by which these fibre products are being recycled is their high capacity for indestructibility
(BRIGHT HUB, 2010). The use of recycled fibres from industrial or post-consumers can reduce waste
and control of mineral resources from being used rapidly and conserved. (Haruyuki Kanehiro, 2007)
found that for fishing net wastes generating from fisheries amounts to about 2,000 tons/year. Of the
wasted netting materials, polyethylene and nylon are mostly conductive to material and chemical
recycling. At present, the recycling of the fishing net wastes is still limited in quantity, but has been
increasing inch by inch in these years.

Furthermore, synthetic fibres are used as reinforcement in concrete and soil to improve their
properties.

Besides performance enhancement, the use of recycled fibres for concrete and soil

reinforcement offers additional benefits such as low cost raw materials, resource utilization, and
reduced needs for land filling (Youjiang Wang, 2006). But in Malaysia Commonly synthetic fibres
added to concrete for slab-on-grade construction to reduce early plastic shrinkage cracking and
increase impact and abrasion resistance and toughness. The cracks are generally caused by either
plastic or drying shrinkage.

Plastic shrinkage occurs before concrete reaches initial set; drying

shrinkage occurs after concrete sets (The Aberdeen Group, 1992).

Conventional steel reinforced concrete is often sensitive to cracking, and these cracks could be the
result of early age shrinkage. Cracks can cause the corrosion of steel reinforcements reducing the
lifetime of concrete structures.
Concrete is strong in compression, but weak in tension, thus adding reinforcement increases the
strength in tension. In addition, the failure strain of concrete in tension is so low that the reinforcement
has to hold the cracked sections together. The practice of disposal requires constant creation of new
landfill spaces, which is in contradiction to the nations environmental goals, including ecosystem
protection. Significant effort has been devoted to the reduction, reuse, and recycling of the waste
materials.

REFERENCES

1. IMPAK. (2006). Waste management: Issue 2. Department of Environmental. Malaysia.

2. BRIGHT HUB. (2010). The latest recycling technologies in using recycled fiber. (2010).
Retrieved

August

28,

2010

from

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-

living/articles/61610.aspx#ixzz0y9Vr3UyI.
3. Haruyuki Kanehiro. (2007). Disposal and recycling of fisheries wastes: Fishing net and
expanded polystyrene. Developments in Food Science, 42, 253-261.
4. Youjiang Wang. (2006). Chapter 14: Utilization of recycled carpet waste fibers for
reinforcement of concrete and soil. Recycling in Textiles. 213-227.
5. The Aberdeen Group. (1992). Synthetic fibers. (1992). Retrieved August 28, 2010 from
ftp://imgs.ebuild.com/woc/C920525.pdf.