Performance of hot-mix asphalt and modified binders containing polyethylene

The demand for high-performance asphalt pavements has been increasing in recent years due to increased traffic volume, automobile size and weight, and rising temperatures due to climate change. It is necessary to modify the bitumen to achieve long-life high-performance pavements in many cases. Consequently, polymers obtained from plastic wastes emerged as a modifier to enhance the bitumen properties. Polymers offer a number of advantages. Polymers such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) offer a number of advantages when used as binder modifier. Using PE or PP in infrastructure projects can be an innovative method to reduce the environmental damage of these nonbiodegradable wastes and the high cost of recycling these wastes. Therefore, this paper extensively investigates the experimental studies carried out by many researchers to evaluate polymer-modified binders' properties as an alternative for pure bitumen in asphalt mixtures under different percentages and production processes. The main goal is to establish a better understanding of the engineering properties of polyethylene-modified asphalt mixtures and ultimately argue that waste polyethylene has a viable use as a modifier for asphalt binders.