Modification of Rubber Waste - Crepe Rubber Type into Rubberized Asphalt

The development of road infrastructure in Indonesia is increasing rapidly to keep pace with the growth in the number of vehicles. However, this progress has caused problems with the structure and pavement of roads that are unfavorable. The current situation of road infrastructure is not in accordance with the planned service life due to the problem of overloading and volume of vehicles and erratic tropical climate. The solution to overcome these problems is to improve the quality of asphalt used through modification of conventional asphalt. One of the modification that can be made is the addition of rubber polymers to the conventional asphalt mixture. Various types of rubber can be used for modifications that can improve the mechanical properties of asphalt, including crepe rubber. In this study, crepe rubber polymers from the thick rubber gloves industry waste of PT. Sumber Lancar Cemerlang (PT. SLC) were used to modify conventional asphalt. This rubber waste is in the form of unused rubber scraps as much as 15% of the initial raw material for crepe rubber in the form of sheets. The accumulated amount of crepe rubber waste produced in PT. SLC is 3 tons/month, which has not been utilized until now. The problem is that this rubber waste cannot be disposed of directly into landfills due to environmental pollution. One solution to overcome the problem of rubber waste is to process it into useful products and added economic value, namely as an additive for the manufacture of rubber asphalt products. This rubberized asphalt product improves the properties of conventional asphalt products and prolong its lifetime. The modification of rubber asphalt carried out in this study used the addition of crepe rubber polymer from glove industry waste with an additional dose of 7% of the asphalt weight. The results show that rubberized asphalt products was successfully made by cold mix method (mixing between crepe rubber waste, pertasol solvent, asphalt and gravel without heating). Comparison for testing strength and durability was conducted between a mixture made from crepe rubber waste, pertasol and gravel with and without asphalt addition based on SNI and ASTM test standards. The specifications of rubber asphalt products meet SNI and ASTM test standards. The test results of rubberized asphalt products in the real environment of the PT SLC area show that rubberized asphalt products from a mixture of asphalt, waste crepe rubber, pertasol and gravel have better strength and durability than both mixtures without asphalt and conventional asphalt.