Reutilisation of hazardous spent fluorescent lamps glass waste as supplementary cementitious material

Spent fluorescent lamps glass (SFLG) waste, manually and mechanically processed in a lamps waste treatment plant, was used to partially replace up to 50 wt% Portland cement (PC). Both waste types exhibited similar pozzolanic activity. The mortars containing up to 35 wt% SFLG met the specifications for other pozzolanic materials (e.g. fly ash) and, after 90 curing days, their compressive strength values were similar to or higher than those of the 100% PC sample (58.8 MPa). Our results provide an alternative reutilization process for this hazardous waste to reuse SFLG as-received (no washing to reduce mercury) and contributes to less PC use. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND

Automated summary

Spent fluorescent lamps glass (SFLG) waste can be partially used as a replacement for Portland cement, exhibiting similar pozzolanic activity. Mortars containing 35% SFLG meet specifications for other pozzolanic materials and have comparable compressive strength values after 90 curing days.