Solidified soil (SS) is widely applied for resource utilization of excavated soil (ES), however the waste solidified soil (WSS) may pose environmental hazards in future because of its high pH (>10). WSS is unsuitable for landfill but can be raw materials for preparing recycled solidified soil (RSS) with better mechanical properties than SS. This investigation used OPC and alkali-activated slag (AAS) as binders to solidify ES and WSS and prepare RSS. The mechanical properties of RSS were experimentally verified to be better than SS, increased by over 76 %. The mechanism is that the clay particles in WSS have been solidified to form sand-like particles or adhere to natural sand, resulting in increasing content of sand-sized particles, and the residual clay particles undergo cation exchange under the high pH and Ca2 + content, resulting in a decrease in zeta potential, reducing diffusion layer thickness. As a result, the flowability of RSS increases under the same liquid to solid ratio. The residual unreacted binder particles and high pH in WSS are beneficial for the early and final compressive strength increase of RSS, which allows preparing RSS with lower cost and carbon emission. Finally, the utilization of WSS has significant environmental benefits.
