No one might have ever thought of using news paper waste to make bricks!!! But two Nagpur based researchers came up with this idea way back in 2009. They thought of making bricks using sludge and solid waste material around news paper mill.
This idea was conceived by a researcher from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, Sachin Mandavgane, who was guided and assisted by his co research fellows. The result was a lightweight brick that is made with 90 per cent paper mill waste and 10 per cent of cement.
A variety of waste material has been used in the production of this light weight brick. For instance, waste materials like cigarette butts, fly ash, textile effluent treatment plant (ETP) sludge, polystyrene foam, plastic fiber, straw, polystyrene fabric, cotton waste, dried sludge collected from an industrial wastewater treatment plant, rice husk ash, granulated blast furnace slag and many more has been used. The brick requires homogeneous mixing of recycle paper mill waste and cement.
The researchers are conducting further study on its effectiveness in earthquake prone areas. They also hope that the brick can be used as internal partition wall, for ceiling and making temporary hutments. As the brick making procedure being simple, it can be undertaken as rural entrepreneurship by unskilled labourers of developing countries too. The light weight brick would be of great use, if the researchers are able to validate its effectiveness and its durability.
Bricks made from Newspaper waste shall be prone to fire. Incase of fire, such bricks will help spread fire faster.
Dear Sir,
An wonderful idea. But it has to be validated. As cost effective building materials can be taken for building cost effective and eco-friendly houses. It can be great relief for the conventional.
M S Khan