Use of Plastic Waste in Manufacturing of Bricks

There is a growing awareness in India about extensive damage being caused to the environment due to accumulation of waste materials from industrial plants, power houses, colliery pits and demolition sites and it has become one of the major environmental, economic and social issues. Waste material is the material unused, unwanted and rejected as worthless into the environment in our society as whole. Waste materials coming out of industry nowadays is posing a great environmental problem in disposing them into the air, water and on the land. But, with proper utilization of these materials in construction industry as well as in making road pavements will greatly help the society to have a better and pleasant environment. Substitution of waste materials will conserve dwindling resources, and will avoid the environmental and ecological damages caused by quarrying and exploitation of the raw materials. The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of re-cycling plastic waste material that is now produced in large quantities in the formulation of bricks as admixture. Looking forward to the environmental condition, complete ban on plastic cannot be made. Our present work is helping to take care of these aspects. Plastic waste, consisting of carry bags, cups and other utilized plastic can be used as an admixture in manufacturing of bricks. In this work an attempt has been made to manufacture bricks by using waste plastic in range of 60 – 80 % by weight of laterite soil and 60/70 grade bitumen was added in range of 2 – 5 % by weight of soil in molten form. And this bitumen- plastic resin was mixed with laterite soil to manufacture the bricks. The results of this investigation consolidate the idea of the use of plastic waste in the field of construction, especially in the manufacturing of bricks.