Recycling and reuse of waste materials have been actively sought by researchers and practitioners alike to promote sustainability and a circular economy in the ground improvement industry. Ground improvement projects, in which typically large amounts of carbon intensive binders are used, is a suitable platform to utilise waste-based low carbon emitting binders. The engineering performance of stabilised materials must be investigated and understood though, before being practiced in the field. In this study, geotechnical and environmental tests including unconfined compression, undrained and drained triaxial, consolidation and leachate tests were conducted on a geopolymer-stabilised soft soil to study various geotechnical engineering properties. These behaviours were compared with those of Portland cement-stabilised soil. Industrial by-products including fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag were used to create the geopolymer. The binder contents, for both geopolymer and cement was 20, and samples were cured for up to 28 days. The results of geotechnical tests indicated that the geopolymer-stabilised soil had significantly higher compressive and shear strength, elastic and constrained moduli, consolidation rate and permeability compared to those of cement-stabilised soil. Environmental test results indicated that although both geopolymer and cement-stabilised soils were environmentally non-hazardous, geopolymer stabilisation was found to be more resistant to acidic environments, compared to cement stabilisation.
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