PROPERTIES OF CEMENT WASTE COMPOSITES

Many nominally inert waste materials can be activated by alkaline subs tances, including Ca(OH)(2) and Portland cement, to form valuable supp lementary cementitious materials. Waste materials are inherently more variable in composition than well specified, manufactured materials. N evertheless, sufficient characterisation techniques are available to p ermit the specification of materials such as fly ash and blast furnace slags with confidence. Applications for other processed waste materia ls, e.g. metakaolin, are being developed. Properly applied, these wast es can actually improve the performance of cement materials. The leach testing of products containing potentially hazardous waste materials, suited only for disposal, is described. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier S cience Ltd