Utilisation of waste glass from solar thermal collectors for the production of polymer concrete

The article discusses the use of waste tempered glass from damaged or decommissioned thermal solar collectors to produce polymer concretes. The waste underwent mechanical recycling to obtain powders of alternative grain sizes: below 2.0 mm and below 0.5 mm. To produce the polymer concrete, ground glass waste served as the fine fraction, and sandstone gravel as the coarse fraction. An epoxy resin acted as the binder for the resulting composite. The research conducted has demonstrated that glass waste from solar collectors can be successfully utilised as a fine fraction in polymer concrete technologies. It was observed that there are no significant differences between the grains at 0.5 mm and 2.0 mm, and both fractions yield the desired results. The resulting polymer concretes are characterised by high mechanical strength, significantly surpassing the properties of typical cement concretes. The compressive strength is at 110.7 MPa, and the flexural strength is at 41.2 MPa. The proposed recycling method allows for the effective management of waste that is difficult to reuse on an industrial scale.