Bricks from plastic waste can be connected without mortar

A young Indian has found a way to replace traditional brick kilns by making bricks from plastic waste cheaper and without environmental pollution. Moreover, the bricks can connect together without mortar.

A Plastiqube brick.

In India, brick kilns often operate in the traditional manner. Working conditions in brick kilns are very harsh. Worker digging clay with bare hands. They were treated so inhumanly in a modern slavery, where workers were forced to work to pay off exorbitant loans.

About 140 thousand brick kilns here also have to pay for the environment. In addition to generating dust and sulfur dioxide (SO ₂ ), it can cause respiratory illnesses and affect local crops and wildlife. One study has estimated that brick kilns in India burn between 15-20 million tons of coal per year. It releases more than 40 million tons of carbon dioxide that cause the climate to heat up into the atmosphere.

Indian workers transport clay bricks to a brick kiln in Farakka, in West Bengal state, India.

"Lego bricks"

In 2016, when he was a student at Jadavpur University, Abhishek Banejee, 22 years old, wanted to find an innovative and socially beneficial alternative to brick kilns.

Together with classmates, Agnimitra Sengupta, Ankan Podder and Utsav Bhattacheryya, Baberjee started a business called Qube in 2017. His product is Plastiqube, an alternative brick made from plastic waste.

Banerjee and his team work with waste collectors in West Bengal to collect rubbish, including plastic water bottles and disposable bags. The debris is then cleaned, shredded and compressed into blocks by hand. Each Plastiqube brick costs 5-6 rupees (about 8 cents) while the average clay brick sells about 10 rupees (about 14 cents), Banerjee said. In addition, unlike traditional bricks, Plastiqube does not use any kind of mortar.

'They are basically like Lego bricks,' Banerjee explained. 'They have interlocking grooves on both the top and bottom that help them lock together.'

It is estimated that India leaves more than 25 thousand tons of plastic waste every day. 40% of which is not collected.'We are doing something sustainable, to get rid of their rubbish literally , ' Benerjee said.

Rubbish floating along a river in Ajmer, in the state of Rajasthan, India.

Reduce waste and emissions

By eliminating brick kilns and the use of mortar from brick production, Banerjee asserts that Plastiqubes can cut energy by up to 70%, the carbon emissions produced are much lower than bricks. traditional.

Each brick contains 1.6 kg of plastic waste. They have not yet tested in construction but fire resistance tests and time of use are underway. Banerjee believes that they will outlast traditional terracotta bricks while removing waste from the environment for hundreds of years.

Banerjee is not alone in her desire to make India sustainable. According to Arundhati Pandey from the World Economic Forum, the country is one of the least wasteful economies in the world. Reuse, repurposing and recycling are standard in households in India where emissions per person are only one-tenth that of those in the US.

Jadpavpur University has supported and endorsed the start-up from the early days of Banerjee.'From there, we began to develop products. and it sped up like what it did after that , 'he said.

Abhishek Banejee boy.

Banerjee's innovation has been recognized. He is one of the finalists for the United Nations Young Champions of the Earth 2018 region. He is also a member of the Yunus and Yunus Global Scholarship Foundation, which trains and supports young social entrepreneurs, and the Qube founders are named among social entrepreneurs "30 under 30. " by Forbes Magazine in Asia.

Banerjee encourages young engineers and entrepreneurs to dream big but also to think carefully about the environmental impact their work will create for decades to come.

"My advice is to start something that always holds a goal that it must be sustainable in the long run , " he said. "See all the reviews, and then implement your business plan, don't just do it for the sake of making money," he advises young people.

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