How to Make Bricks from Plastic Waste Materials

The major issue facing the globe is plastic, a material that is extremely dangerous and difficult to disintegrate. Polythene bags, garbage disposals, furniture, food packaging, and other accessories all heavily rely on plastic in our daily lives.

According to their chemical makeup, plastic comes in a wide range of varieties. Therefore, the primary issue we face is the separation of plastic garbage.

Today, plastic is spread over the globe by burning. They release a lot of harmful and hazardous fumes.

Humans are harmed by poisonous gases, which can lead to diseases including cancer, hypertension, and asthma, among others.

We cannot stop using plastics, but there are various ways to recycle and reuse it with little impact on the environment. In a variety of industries, including manufacturing, transportation, and construction, we employ such recycled plastic. In the construction sector, materials account for a bigger portion of project costs, ranging from 60% to 70% of the whole cost.

So as a result, bricks are utilized extensively in the building sector and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including clay, concrete, fly ash, and foam bricks.

In this article, we attempt to examine how to produce bricks from waste plastic while increasing their strength and economy so that the general public may readily purchase these types of bricks.

The plastic garbage must first be gathered and separated from other wastes. If the plastic waste is damp or contains moisture, we need dry it out next. Dry plastic garbage is what we must use. The trash plastic is then broken down into tiny pieces.

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Smaller particles are crushed into smaller, finer particles. Fine plastic waste particles were also cooked in a furnace until they were liquid. Stone dust is added to melted plastic. We can appropriately combine it to create a mixture. The mixture was placed into molds. Keep it moldy until it is dry.

Some Variety of Materials Used for Plastic Brick:

▪ Plastic bottles made of nylon 66, a high density polymer (PET)

▪ Discarded plastics

▪ Composite made of plastic and another substance

▪ Sand from a river (4.75mm)

▪ Red soil

▪ Cement

The population is increasing, and so is the demand for plastics and other requirements. Brick is the most often used material in the construction industry and accounts for a sizable share of project materials, especially for residential projects.

We mix various plastic types in various ways to make various types of bricks. We can ascertain the various properties of bricks by conducting numerous studies on them. Compression and water absorption tests are two of the most common brick tests conducted by various research.

These bricks are, however, incredibly sparingly used in the industry. We need to expand the use of these types of bricks and make using them simpler for people.

One of the most typical masonry components used in construction is brick. Due to the demand, several waste products have been looked into for incorporation into the bricks. Between the supply of traditional building materials and demand, there has recently been a significant imbalance.

On the other hand, plastic garbage is widely available, and disposing of it is a major difficulty because only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled and repeated recycling of PET bottles could result in the creation of a dangerous material due to expensive traditional recycling

Therefore, there is a greater need for cutting-edge, inventive, and scientific methods to efficiently recycle these materials.

The Making Process Involves:

(1) Plastics Materials Collection

Plastic garbage from factories, hospitals, businesses, industries, food packaging, and plastic bottles should be collected; these materials fall under the category of LDPE plastic.

(2) Plastics batching

Batching is the measurement process used to produce brick. Following the gathering of the materials, we sort the plastic types, remove any additional garbage that may have been included, and check the sample to see whether there is any water present before burning it.

(3) Burning plastic garbage

After batching, the plastic waste will be taken for burning, where each plastic bag will be dropped into a container individually and left to melt. To avoid harmful gases being leaked into the atmosphere, these would be carried out in closed vessels. These will be between 120 and 150 degrees Celsius in temperature.

(4) Mixing

The production of uniform and strong bricks requires a proper mixing of the materials. A homogeneous, uniformly colored and consistent mass must be produced during the mixing process.

Mechanical and hand mixing are the two main types of mixing.  Mix up until the entire amount of plastic needed to make one mix proportion of plastic brick is added to it.

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Prior to it setting, a trowel is used to thoroughly mix these plastic liquids. The river sand is added after the mixture, which has a very brief setting time. Sand is mixed after being added. As a result, mixing shouldn’t take too long.

(5) Moulding

We put the mix into the necessary mold once the right mixing has been completed. In these projects, we utilize bricks that are the standard size (19x9x9cm). Remove the brick from the mold when two days are up so that curing can begin.

(6) Curing

After molding, the test specimens will be given a 24-hour drying period. The samples will be stored in a curing tank and a 28-day cure time is permitted.

Bricks must meet a minimum compressive strength requirement in order to be used in construction projects the items’ compressive strength as measured using a compression testing machine

In conclusion, bricks can be made from waste plastic, which is readily available everywhere.

▪ Plastic sand bricks can aid in lowering environmental pollutants, resulting in a clean and healthy atmosphere.

▪ Bricks made of plastic sand instead of clay use less clay in their construction.

▪ Plastic sand bricks provide customers a different brick option at a reasonable price.

▪ The plastic sand brick has a 0% water absorption rate.

▪ When compared to fly ash bricks and third-class clay bricks, we come to the conclusion that plastic sand bricks are beneficial for the construction business.

Contrary to popular belief, plastic bricks operate optimally and are twice as durable as concrete. The bricks are made of a sand and plastics blend. Bricks are created by compressing the mixture of plastic and sand at extremely high temperatures.