India accounts for 10% World production in casting and forging industry, of which carbon dust and residue from recycled waste forms nearly 4.3 million metric tons of dumped waste proving to be a huge Environmental Hazard. Adding to that the mixed plastic dumping by Hospitals, Industry and Society at large which end up in landfills cropping up every few kilometres across major cities.
The ‘Silica-Plastic Block’ or SPB attempts to confront this mounting problem one brick at a time.
India based company, Rhino Machines has launched the Silica Plastic Blocks - a sustainable building brick that is made from recycling foundry dust/ sand waste (80%) and mixed plastic waste (20%); in collaboration with r+d labs, which is the research wing of the architectural firm R+D Studio.
The ‘Silica-Plastic Block’ Project started with clear mandate of doing zero waste from the sand reclamation plant in Rhino Machines Foundry Plant. In the initial stages, experiments were conducted by using foundry dust in cement-bonded fly ash bricks (7-10% waste recycled) and clay bricks (15% waste recycled). The above experiments additionally required the use of natural resources such as cement, fertile soil and water. The amount of natural resources consumed in the process was not justified by the waste it was able to recycle.
These trials led to more research by the in-house R&D team, resulting in a possibility of bonding the sand/foundry dust with plastic. By using plastic as a bonding agent, the need for water during mixing and thereafter curing is completely eliminated. The ‘Silica-Plastic Blocks’ can be directly used after cooling down from molding process. These plastic blocks were found to be 2.5 times the strength of normal red clay bricks and consumed around 70 to 80% of the foundry dust with 80% lesser use of natural resources.
With further testing and development, newer molds were prepared to test these blocks as paver blocks especially with the strength advantage and field tested successfully. Over the period of 4 months, various industries such as hospitals, societies, individuals, social organizations and the local municipal corporations were approached to provide clean plastic. In total, six tonnes from plastic waste and sixteen tonnes of dust and sand from the foundry industry was collected and ready to be recycled. Since the SPB is a result of a waste product, the cost of production is competitive and can easily compete with the commonly available Red Clay Brick or the CMU ( Concrete Masonry Unit).
Rhino Machines is now preparing to come up with an ecosystem solution so that the foundries across the country can develop and distribute these SPBs within their impact zones through CSR. (Corporate Social Responsibility - a Government of India initiative for businesses to undertake philanthropic causes and give back to the community). These SPBs could be used to build walls, toilets, school campuses, health clinics, pavers, drive ways etc.
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CREDITS
Silica Plastic Block, India
Developer: Rhino Machines Pvt. Ltd, Karamsad, India (https://www.rhinomachines.net)
Team: Manish Kothari, Rajnikant Paghadhar, Yogesh Chauhan, Ashit Desai, Rashmi Kothari
Collaborators: r+d labs (R+D Studio) (http://rdstudio.net/)
Photography: Ketan Patel (https://www.instagram.com/kepee501/)
Text & Diagram Credit: Manya Walia, Shridhar Rao
8 Comments
looking forward.
Great initiative and remarkable achievement towards sustainable environment..
Congrats to Rhino Machines and R + D Lab..
Wonderful photography.. great work Ketan Patel..
Hi Manishbhai, great initiative. I can recommended another adhesive which work wonders for brick making in another versatile way.
Paresh
9825008747
Great innovation - Congratulations to team & more Gifts to the Community for safe environment
this is what we need after so much damaged have been done to environment,,impressive innovation and efforts !! keep it up
Congratulation Rhino team
We can also go for alternate of plywood sheet.
if you need a supplier? Let me supplie a plastic
can you send me product specification and technical data sheet for SPB ?
Please share your email id or send an email on manish@rhinomachine.com
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