Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Culverts, Volume X, Issue X, Month 2018 1

ISSN 2250-3153

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive

in Making Culverts
Gados, J.J., Pavia, J.M., Quililan, M.J., Echague, D.G., Uddin, C.K.
* Department of Education, Legazpi City Science
High School

DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.X.X.2018.pXXXX
http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.X.X.2018.pXXXX

 resistance to water absorption

Index Terms- culverts, plastic, PET bottles, pipes  texture and appearance

I. INTRODUCTION c) to follow precise and accurate measurements to result to

L ocally, Philippines is known to be the third-largest ocean
polluter despite of laws in force specifically the Solid Waste
Management Act (RA 9003) that aims efficient solid waste
management to reduce the volume of waste in the environment.
This issue is one of the global struggle every human being are
facing. Due to dumping of plastic waste in canals and major water
ways, it became one of the causes of heavy floods.
Culverts are unique structures that represent a significant part of
today’s infrastructure. They are used to transfer water and
materials as a drain pipe under roads or earth, can be used as
bridges too and allow to connect wild life to one another. But the
major issue is that plastic wastes clog the passageways of water
out of the culverts and makes it harder to regain the cleanliness.
Because of that, culverts are currently in a state of disrepair or
experiencing reduced functionality.
The researchers decided to conduct a study entitled “Polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Concrete
Culvert” to promote the reduction of plastic wastes in such way
that those can be turned into product useful to the community.
This study aims to investigate the potential of shredded PET
bottles as an effective additive in making culvert. Specifically, it
will seek answers to the following questions: (1) Will the amount
of varying shredded PET bottles affect the strength of the culvert?
(2) Is there a significant difference between culverts containing
shredded PET bottles and manufactured product in the durability
of culvert?
The objective of the study is to:
a) determine the effect of PET bottles on the toughness of
the culvert;
b) to test the feasibility of PET bottles in making culvert in
terms of:
correct data;
d) to provide recommendations at the end of the study;
e) to accompany the results with proper data and analysis
The researchers’ hypothesis is that the application of
shredded PET bottles is effective in strengthening culvert. The null
hypothesis is that the application of shredded PET bottles won’t
affect the toughness of the culvert.
The researchers focused on shredded PET bottles only as
an additive material needed for the creation of culvert. Aspects
covered: making an innovative approach and design to produce
culvert, collecting PET bottles that can be used in the process of
creating culvert, determining and testing its efficiency. Therefore,
no other functions will be explored and shall be explained.
Sadanada (2016), a civil engineer, defined culvert as a tunnel like
structure or pipe in a huge size that is commonly used for water
drainages and putting cable electrical wires together. According to
him, it is usually enclosed under railways or sidewalks.
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulations
state that as of December 2006, equal consideration must be given
to the use of alternative pipe materials such as plastic and
corrugated aluminum as long as they are judged to be satisfactory
based on both engineering and economic analyses (FHWA 2006).
It is essential to quantify cover requirements for thermoplastic
pipes by characterizing the performance of both the thermoplastic
pipes themselves and soil-pipe interaction (Gassman et al. 2005).
In the study of Araghi (2015) entitled "An Experimental
Investigation on the Erosion Resistance of Concrete Containing
Various PET Particles Percentages against Sulfuric Acid Attack"
shows the result that by increasing in amount of PET particles as
an alternative aggregates in concrete, there is less reduction in

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Culverts, Volume X, Issue X, Month 2018 2
ISSN 2250-3153
values of crushing load, weight loss and ultrasonic wave velocity.  1kg of sahara mix
Also, it could be seen that ratios of crushing load reduction to
weight loss for specimens attacked by 5% sulfuric acid solution  Water
were increased by increasing in percentage of PET particles,
which illustrates that in a particular range of crushing load, less  two 8x2ft metal plain sheet
weight loss was occurred in concretes included more PET
particles.  tie wire
The result of the study will be a great benefit to reduce the volume
 steel tape measure
of plastic waste, specifically PET bottles in the community and
will turn the so called problem into something useful in a creative
 chicken wire
way.

The development of shredded PET bottles as an additive in  sand

making culvert has its own benefits in manufacturers. They can
get ideas out of this study to make culverts stronger by applying  shredded PET bottles
the stated materials to their product, and at the same time,
incorporating scientific concepts. Aside from that, it would be a  moulder
great help for them to lessen their expenses to produce culverts.
It will also have an impact and effect on the society. This can Banania (2020) suggested to use 1,2,3 method for the
inspire and open the minds of the people especially the youth, to cement mix ratio for best results. The 1:2:3 ratio method is
apply creativity and to contribute possible solution on unending consisting of cement, sand, and gravel respectively. The method
problems in this society. This study will also benefit a specific includes adding precise amount of water depending on the
government agency, the Department of Public Works and viscosity of the mixtuire.
Highways. Employers of this institution will be able to apply this
product and will also have the idea of using shredded pet bottles Materials A B C D
as an additive in making culvert. Having this kind of the study
will have a significant and essential approach in the country. The Shredded PET
0g 250g 500g 750g
environmental issue, specifically the pollution can have possible Bottles
solution even in the simplest way. This would help to reduce the
volume of solid waste in the country to achieve the cleanliness- Cement 1kg 1kg 1kg 1kg
the every Filipino's dream. In addition, it will be a great help to
increase the rate of its production in the country. Lastly, the Sand 2kg 2kg 2kg 2kg
future researchers are the people that will surely benefit from this
study because this can serve as their baseline data. The results Gravel 3kg 3kg 3kg 3kg
and conclusion of this study can provide them a related literature
and information to the students that may conduct this study in the Sahara Mix 250g 250g 250g 250g
near future.

Cordovilla (2020) explained that plane sheet as molder

II. METHODOLOGY
The researcher made use of experimental and descriptive as
their research design in the study. Experimental design is known
to be the blueprint of procedures by which this enable the
researchers to control the factors which needs to be considered that
may affect the outcome of the experiment. On the other hand,
descriptive research answers the question associated with the
research problem. With this methods, it enable the researchers to
manipulate and control the factors with the experimental design
and observe or measure the factor in the study with descriptive
design.
In making the culvert, the researchers will be using:
 4 kilos of cement
 12kg of gravel
can be utilized since there has a big difference in size of the culvert
from PET bottles from ordinary culvert that is commonly use in
water ways. He believes that rolled plane sheet according to
desired size will be more effective in moulding the cement mix.
In addition, Lontoc (2020) suggested to add Sahara
cement waterproofing compound to the cement mix in order to
prevent the absorbance of water to the culvert.
The following were the procedures taken up in order to
prepare and test culvert. There were two phases done.
A. Planning and Making the Molder
B. Making the Cement Mix
C. Testing the Product

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Culverts, Volume X, Issue X, Month 2018 3
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A. The sketch of the molder is planned by the researchers. After
gathering the materials, the plane sheet was rolled with the
diameter of 11 inches. The tie wire was wrapped and tightly
secured around the rolled plane sheet. The other set of plane sheet
undergone the same process but vary in diameter of 7 inches. Roll
the chicken wire with a diameter of 9 inches. Arrange the 2 plain
sheet and chicken wire based on the illustration.
Preparing the Materials

7 inches plain sheet Construction of Culvert

9 inches chicken wire

11 inches plain sheet
1st phase: 2nd phase:
Making the Creating the
Moulder Cement Mix

Figure 1.
Statistical Analysis
B. Prepare the materials for the mixture. Precise amount of
cement, sand and plastic depending on the given ratio of each
sample was measured. Water was added enough to mix all the
T - Test
ingredients. The cement mixture with plastic was poured to the
molder and was set aside to totally dry. The process was repeated
throughout the sample that varies with the amount of shredded
plastic waste. Results and Discussion

The researchers will use the dependent t-test also called as paired
t-test to determine if there is a statistically significant difference Conclusion and
between culvert product with PET plastics and culvert without Recommendation
PET plastics. Treatment means will be compared to determine if
there will be significant difference among the treatments.
Figure 2. Analytical Paradigm

With d.f. = n – 1, and where:

Σ𝐷 𝑛Σ𝐷2 −(Σ𝐷)2
̅̅̅̅
𝑋𝐷 = 𝑠𝐷 = √
𝑛 𝑛(𝑛−1)

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Culverts, Volume X, Issue X, Month 2018 4
ISSN 2250-3153

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle as an

Additive in Making Culvert

Identifying the effect of PET Bottle as an

additive in Making Culvert

 Determining the best amount of shredded PET

bottles for
 Identifying the difference of Culvert with or
without shredded PET bottles

Effectively using PET bottle as an additive in

making culvert

Figure 3. Conceptual Paradigm

REFERENCES

[1] Gassman, S. (2005). Field performance of high density

polyethylene culvert pipe. Journal of Transportation

Engineering. 131(2). doi: 10.1061(ASCE)0733-

947X(2005)131:2(160)

[2] Araghi, H, Allahyani, H. (2015). An experimental

investigation on the erosion resistance of concrete

containing various PET particles percentages against

sulfuric acid attack. Constructional Building

Materials. 77(1), 461-471. Retrieved from:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.12.037

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as an Additive in Making Culverts, Volume X, Issue X, Month 2018 5
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