Plastic bricks from trash.

[KentuckyWoman]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-environment-recycling/kenyan-recycles-plastic-waste-into-bricks-stronger-than-concrete-idUSKBN2A211N

This is from February but I'm just now seeing it. This really fantastic.

“There is that waste they cannot process anymore; they cannot recycle. That is what we get,” Matee said, strolling past sacks of plastic waste.

Matee gets the waste from packaging factories for free, although she pays for the plastic she gets from other recyclers.

Her factory produces 1,500 bricks each day, made from a mix of different kinds of plastic.

Matee, a materials engineer who designed her own machines, said her factory has recycled 20 tonnes of waste plastic since its founding in 2017.

[Throck]

1. Pavers, I like it.

[Bayard]

2. Hey--I could use some of those!

Good job.

[onethatcares]

3. they use 60 tons of waste plastic/yr presently

if the United States was to get serious about recycling we'd probably go thru 60 million tons of waste a year but then the multi millionaire concrete company owners, the lumber kings and others would lose their fortunes.

I don't see it happening here in my lifetime, no matter how ecological or common senseical it seems.

[Fla Dem]

5. We could use the reprocessed bricks to build and rebuild homes in improvised areas.

Say like Haiti or other areas where there is a need for low cost but sturdy construction. I don't think the major lumber and concrete companies are interested in helping out at below their cost.

On further research:
Just went to their website. Evidently the bricks are only being offered as pavers. Eventually building bricks.

https://gjenge.co.ke/

[NurseJackie]

4. Are these to be used only as pavers and garden walls?

Or will they meet fire-proof standards and be safe enough for home construction?

[Brother Buzz]

6. I'd be more concerned about UV stability/resistance

In my experience, it seems like all plastic stuff starts of great, then turns to shit in a few short years

[NurseJackie]

7. You're right about that.

[Brother Buzz]

11. I read upthread, they are only intended as pavers at the moment

I can visualized a bunch of pissed of people having to constantly sweep their patios as the bricks break down and the sand sluffs off.

[NurseJackie]

12. That seems like the most likely outcome.

Perhaps they could be better used as underground footer material, or as underground piers for post foundations. Or as a base-layer over which a concrete sidewalk (or garden wall) is built.

A neighbor of our has his deck and the stairs leading to his front door made of fake wood (brand name called treks or trax or something) and I think that's made with recycled plastic ... but obviously it's not the poor quality plastic that has reached it's End of Life.

[Brother Buzz]

14. I understand the major cost of Trex lumber is the engineered UV stabilized binder

Good stuff, and it's not cheap, but it's whole lot cheaper then quality lumber.

The problem with these plastic pavers is that they are competing with relatively inexpensive concrete pavers which have a proven track record.

[ChazInAz]

9. Very true.

I used to live in Arizona, and the combination of extreme heat, ultraviolet and high aridity causes plastics to decompose at a remarkable rate. Heck, even something painted bright red (Like a stop sign or fire truck.) will be pink in a year!

[KS Toronado]

8. All plastics burn I believe.....

or at least from my experience. Could we coat home construction bricks with a fire retardant? Possibly

[gfwzig]

10. I had this idea years ago, it cannot be done in the USA.

the cost to dispose the residue from just cleaning the recycled plastic makes it impossible.
Imagine dozens or even hundreds of different chemical / organic residues mixed together..
And that is only the beginning,, the EPA, and OSHA regulations would be impossible to navigate,,
Only a large corporation that has an uninterrupted source of the same type of clean plastic could pull it off,,
and even then the clean plastic is much more valuable as a raw material for the plastic industry,,
In the USA, even a small operation like hers would be shut down immediately,,

[bucolic_frolic]

13. There is plastic lumber, of course, available at most any lumber yard

But they have to be sealed with proper paints for exterior and perhaps even interior use. So I think the issue here is the mixture of unknown plastics for raw material. They have to be separated. Seems like some companies or researchers have been working on it.

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/64975

Plastic residue can be processed into composites using wood flour, mineral fillers, plant or synthetic fibers to obtain plastic lumber, a substitute material for natural wood. The composition and processing conditions are largely responsible for the final characteristics of the plastic lumber. Factors such as density, particle size and moisture content in the material to be processed require extruders with specific technical characteristics, in order to reduce the residence time of the plastic inside the equipment, maintain a constant feed rate and ensure good degassing and homogenization of the components. The composites can be manufactured using single-screw, co- or counter-rotating conical or parallel twin-screw extruders. Plastic lumber exhibits different physical and mechanical properties from natural wood, including lower stiffness (elastic modulus) and superior weathering resistance.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856326/

[crickets]

15. K&R for visibility.