Formation of Bricks and Concrete by Utilizing Waste from Paper Industry

Since its appearance on earth, man has exploited and modified the environment to his advantage in many ways. One of the factors that affect the degradation of the environment is population growth. Due to exponential growth of population in recent years, there is great demand for construction and thus increasing pressure for use of natural resources causing their acute shortage. Cement is one of the main materials used by construction industries in large quantities. During manufacturing process of cement, significant emission of carbon- dioxide (CO2) is generated. Production of one ton of cement emits approximately one ton of CO2. Similarly, there is huge occurrence of environmental degradation due to excessive use of topsoil in brick manufacturing. Traditionally soil, stone aggregates, sand, bitumen, cement etc. are used for constructional activities. Concrete is a blend of cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water. The key factor that adds value to concrete is its design capability to withstand harshest environments significant role. Due to excessive extraction and consumption of natural materials in nature, their quantities are declining very fast. Moreover, cost of extraction of good quality of natural material is increasing day by day. In view of increasing demand of these natural materials, the scientists are searching alternative materials for construction, and industrial waste materials is one such category. If such waste materials can be suitably utilized in constructional activities, the problems associated with its unscientific disposal and consequently generation of pollution can be partly reduced.

It has now become a global concern, to find a social, techno-economic, environmental-friendly solution to preserve a cleaner and pollution free environment. In recent years, the use of solid waste is the challenge for the civil and environmental engineers to utilize environment friendly supplementary cementitious materials by economically developed methods causing least possible environmental degradation. Some of the successfully tested and used industrial wastes are crumb rubber, blast furnace slag, and fly ash etc. Use of such industrial waste materials is not only leading to potential savings in natural resources and energy but also reduction in impact of CO2 emission which otherwise would have been used as landfill and might require a waste management program.

Environmental conservation is not only an undeniable industrial responsibility but stringent environmental laws and market competitiveness has demanded effectual and substantial actions from industry to preserve the environment.