MECHANICAL STABILIZATION OF EARTH SLOPES USING RECYCLED MATERIALS

Recycled materials can be successfully used to mechanically reinforce earth slopes as demonstrated by successful field installations using recycled railroad rails and recycled plastic members as earth reinforcement. Successful implementation of recycled materials requires that careful consideration be given to several issues, such as development of a widely accepted design procedure for in situ reinforced slopes suitable for use with recycled materials, and accounting for the capacity of the recycled members, including consideration of potential impacts of "first use" of the materials and the long term durability of the materials under field exposure and loading conditions. Additional work to evaluate the creep characteristics for plastic members with different constituents is needed before broadly acceptable specifications can be developed.