Chelating Agent Treatment on Leaded Residuals from Glass Separated Urban Collection to Be Used in Cement Mortars

Abstract: A mild chelating agent treatment was performed on the residuals of the sorting processes of separately collected urban glass, which is currently landfilled. This fraction, that represents about the 10 wt% of the overall collected glass, has a very heterogeneous composition and contains relatively high amounts of lead and barium and consequently cannot be used to produce new glass containers. This contaminated material shows, when used as fine aggregate in Portland Cement based composites, an expansive behaviour due to the alkali silica reactions. The expansion can only be partially reduced by using finely ground soda lime glass, showing pozzolanic activity. However, after the chelating agent treatment, because of heavy atoms surface depletion, the synergic effect of pozzolan addition leads to a suppressed expansion, thus allowing the use of waste in the formulation of cement composites. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].