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High amounts of ceramic waste is accumulated every year in the disposal and construction sites due to the rejection of all smashed, cracked, and broken tiles. The usage of recycled ceramic crushed tiles (RCT) in improving soft soil is considered an environmentally-friendly, economical and sustainable solution. Soft soils are characterized as problematic soils that are always associated with weak performance when loaded. It is a common practice to excavate, transport and dispose this kind of soil into landfills and replace it with a soil that meets the engineering requirements. Due to shortage of space in landfills and the high costs involved in this processes, soft soils are always treated at construction sites. In this study, two sizes of RCT (0.3 and 1.18 mm) are used to improve the physical and mechanical properties of soft soil. The size and percentage of RCT are investigated and its influence on unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and compaction is evaluated. Microstructural tests included scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were also conducted on samples treated with RCT. Noticeable increment in both density and unconfined compressive strength was achieved. The maximum dry density increased from 1.59 Mg/m 3 to 1.82 Mg/m 3 and 1.77 Mg/m 3 at the addition of 40% 1.18 mm and 0.3 mm RCT, respectively. Whereas the unconfined compressive strength increased from 50 kPa to 250 kPa and 225 kPa at 10% addition of 1.18 mm RCT and 40% 0.3 mm RCT, respectively. The optimum value of RCT to treat soft clay was found to be 10% and 40% for 1.18 mm and 0.3 mm RCT, respectively. The remarkable improvement in the strength of soil is due to the development of cementation compounds that acts as a binder between the RCT and soil particles. This study would help in reducing the impacts created by disposing of both problematic soil and waste tiles. Besides, cement is the most traditional material used to stabilize soil. This research would contribute to reducing the CO 2 produced during the production of cement.

Recycled blended ceramic tiles (RBT) is a waste material produced from ceramic tile factories and construction activities. RBT is found to be cost effective, sustainable, environmental-friendly and has the potential to be used as an additive in soft soil stabilization. Recent reports show that massive amounts of RBT are dumped into legal or illegal landfills every year consuming very large spaces and creating major environmental problems. On the other hand, dredged marine clay obtained from Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia has weak physical and engineering characteristics to be considered as unsuitable soft soil that is usually excavated, dumped into landfills and replaced by stiff soil. Hence, this study investigates the suitability of possible uses of RBT to treat marine clay. Laboratory tests included Standard proctor tests and Atterberg limits tests. The plasticity of marine clay was evaluated by adding 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of 0.3 mm RBT. In addition, the compaction behaviour of treated marine clay was compared by adding two different sizes (0.3 mm and 1.18 mm diameter) of RBT. For both coarse and fine sizes of RBT, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of the dry weight of the soft clay were added. The mixture of each combination was examined in order to evaluate the Maximum Dry Density (MDD) and the optimum moisture content (OMC) for the treated soft clay. MDD and OMC for soft untreated samples were 1.59 Mg/m3 and 22%, respectively. Treated samples with 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of 0.30 mm size RBT resulted in a significant reduction of OMC ranged from 19 to 15% while MDD resulted in increment ranged from 1.69 to 1.77 Mg/m3. In addition, samples treated with 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of 1.18 mm size RBT resulted in major reduction of OMC ranged from 15 to 13.5% while MDD increased effectively from 1.75 to 1.82 Mg/m3. For all mix designs of soft clay-RBT, MDD was gradually increasing and OMC was sharply reducing with further increments of both sizes of RBT.