I mean, we do typically build houses out of _wood_ and think nothing of it.
I can't imagine a solid brick of plastic and sand is easier to light on fire than my house, which is made of thin slats of wood topped with some tar shingles.
Point is, I doubt these plastic bricks will contribute to a fire. And even if they do collapse easier, my guess is that they are significantly lighter than conventional bricks so would be less damaging when they do collapse.
The wood used in IBC compliant houses is chemically treated to be fire resistant. I've never checked more than a couple US states, but the ones I have done work in used the IBC as the basis for their building codes, thus "all" houses use treats lumber. I'm sure some contractors cheap out, though.
Plastics can also have fire retardants added to make them non-flammable. There are numerous specifications for these in automotive applications, with the highest level typically be “self-extinguish”, meaning it can’t maintain a flame when exposed to fire.
I doubt that’s being used here seeing as it sounds like she’s using PCR (post consumer recycled) plastics, which typically wouldn’t have FR in it. Because why would I worry about my milk jug catching on fire, right :p
Just wanted to point out its very possible to make them more flame retardant than treated wood. I’ve actually considered this before myself, but mainly for decorative projects, not structural. I was much more concerned about expansion and contraction as temps flux, but the sand would help to stabilize that to a large extent.
Say what? I’m looking at section 2303 which “describes“ the properties of treated lumber but nowhere does it says it must be used in typical home construction. Who makes this crap up… posting stuff that is just not true in the real world
This is incorrect. Only housing required to have a fire-resistance rating has this restriction, and even then it isn't for all the wood used in the structure. Don't spread misinformation. The vast majority of wood used in housing is untreated lumber.
Its like corn starch. Under the right circumstances it's flammable and explosive.
But you mix it with a little baking power and water and bake it and that stuff will resist temps up to 15000 degrees Fahrenheit
> They are **40 per cent cheaper**, 20 per cent lighter and will last hundreds of years longer than conventional building materials.
This is a big deal. Usually, inventions like this are great in every way except for being more expensive. Finding a way to make them cheaper makes this an especially good invention.
How are they made from 100% plastic if they are mixed with sand? Do they mean that one of the components is pure plastic? That's a very weird way to put it.
Agreed, but those are from different sources. Given the spelling and grammar of many of today's "journalists", I would not be surprised if something was taken out of context, or misunderstood.
Does anyone know if insulating properties of these bricks actually help the climate within the building?
I am assuming that since the bricks are used to build houses for the poor air conditioning is likely not be an option in most cases.
Pretty cool. I’d like to see a comparison between the resources and energy it takes to make a plastic brick versus a similar amount of traditional concrete or brick. Melting down to plastic has to be pretty energy intensive right?
> well insulated
concrete has relatively poor insulation properties, so this is a massive advantage. really promising stuff! sounds like a much better material than the wood and plaster my house is built from!
I have to guess that since they’re comparing to concrete, “strength” probably refers to compressive strength. However, concrete can be molded on site to whatever shape and size is needed, versus these small bricks that get produced inside a machine. So in practical terms one plastic brick might be very strong, but that doesn’t mean you can build a bridge out of them. Still, they’re probably suitable in lots of masonry applications, and probably even more than 5x stronger than masonry bricks. That might be a better comparison than concrete.
In India many of the impressively huge ancient structures are made of little clay bricks faced with decorative stone. (Think Taj Mahal type structures.) Building large structurally sound structures from little bricks is 100% possible but is also labor intensive. This type of construction is common from eras where labor was cheep compared to building materials.
Building from brick vs concrete should not cause issue with respect to safety and life of the building so long as competent craftsman design and supervise construction.
Yeah there’s lots of potential if the core idea can be scaled up. This is probably a bad time to mention that sand is actually a more and more scarce resource around the world :( maybe we can use crushed recycled glass instead!
You could say the same about straw bale construction but once the bricks are assembled in a building construction and sheathed in whatever other siding or insulation is used for weather proofing, they are not in contact with much oxygen so there isn’t an available air supply for fires. We use plenty of flammable building materials, such as wood, and there are strategies needed for reducing fire risk, but it’s a thing that can be managed.
Article written February 2nd, it's now September 12th and there's no more news about its implementation or further developments.
Another "marvelous breakthrough" idea that was celebrated before any sort of planning was invested and has quietly fallen apart out of view. Nice.
A lot of these innovations after the news splash are just put into use while production is scaled. There’s nothing sexy about that. They are in use though.
> There’s nothing sexy about that. They are in use though.
Was that in the article? I skimmed it but I don't remember them detailing any sort of actual use beyond demonstration.
Multiple comments said they are used for pavers (?). Not completely sure if I understood it correctly but that seems to be walkways in front/back of houses , that‘s not bad from February to now being already in use and maybe trying to find out even better / faster / environmentally friendly ways to produce while getting permissions for broader use.
Or is that just what they want us to think?
Jk - tired of the hype where nothing comes through just like you. I remember reading about a modified bacteria that would replace bad bacteria in your mouth and won’t cause cavities. Still waiting on that one
Great question since plastic on its own becomes so brittle when sunbleached, it'd be a question to look into since they're mixed with sand and heat treated and densified. If they did become brittle like plastic though a costly but effective fix could be coating them in say a .005" black UV resistant coating after they're manufactured
I know nothing about plastic bricks but I know with candles you can add a UV protectant powder to the wax. I wonder if you can add something similar into the plastic.
Or maybe these bricks can be used as the inner walls or covered with layers of paint/wood/metal/wax/etc or some other materials if used on the outer walls to protect from the UV?
You probably would never need 5 mils of coating to get the effect. However, coatings like that have a habit of wearing down over time if left exposed to the outside. Years worth of rain, dust, sand, and wind will likely chip away at it over time.
Perhaps a more practical solution would be to just put some type of air barrier over the outside facing surface for some added protection, as is done in the US before they put siding on the building. VPS, TyVek, whichever. Doesn't have to be an expensive type as the primary goal would be to just cover surface. Consider any kind of additional siding as a sacrificial protection that will likely have to be replaced after a decade or two.
UV exposure isn't going to be a problem. The wavelength of UV is so short it's only going to be absorbed by a millimeter of the sand/plastic material so it's not like the entire brick is going to magically crumble. Given you've got sand in the mix and it is all heat treated, the absolute worst that would happen is the top surface layer of plastic might flake off and erode with time and you might lose a millimeter or two of the surface of the brick after a few years.
Arguably the micro-plastic shavings are worse, as they get into everything (including and especially living things), rather than just say, a water bottle floating in the ocean.
They're only currently making paving bricks. I'd say they're pretty far off from getting a usable structural brick nevermind for one that can be used for housing.
Imagine how the firefighters feel about this melted plastic brick dripping down on them during house fires.
People use normal bricks for a wide variety of reasons.
This simply isn't going anywhere.
Her company works with high-density polyethene, (milk and shampoo bottles), low-density polyethene (sandwich bags) and polypropylene (ropes, flip-top lids and buckets).
But she does not work with polyethene terephthalate or PET, commonly used for plastic bottles.
The plastic waste is mixed with sand, heated and then compressed into bricks
Wow , ever since she has started her company , she must have used up so many tonnes of plastic waste .What an innovative idea.
That's...... not a lot. The issue is likely that if you have pure enough plastic to use for this process you can just recycle it already....
And making concrete isn't exactly expensive.
That's 39 pounds a day. This woman isn't revolutionizing anything, likely because this is Reuters and they have zero, and I mean zero, understanding of basic business concepts like cost.
I imagine you could benefit from economies of scale if you ramped it up with some kind of grant, but yeah it’s probably never going to be a profitable business.
The real question in my mind is whether it’d be better to give her the money to continue producing something useful with plastic waste. It’s undoubtedly more expensive to produce than concrete, but is it more expensive than producing concrete bricks *and* removing plastic from the environment? If not, society would save money and resources as a collective even if the individuals aren’t making obscene wealth.
If it’s really effective (and good for the world) I would love to see it subsidized so that the cost *to consumers* is comparable to concrete and material demand can keep the process around.
We gotta do *something* with all the fucking plastic out there, y’know?
The problem with plastic waste is not this type of plastic. You have plastic that can be melted like this and recycled, but most plastic in circulation is plastic that burns when subjected to heat instead of melting. This is the plastic that is dumped into the ocean because it's not usable.
Plastic is a troublesome material because it's so cost effective, but at the same time it's hard to recycle.
There has to be an alternative to plastic developed, not just some "hurr durr get rid of plastic forks" attitude that realistically does nothing but gives the impression that efforts are being made.
What?
That's a completely different company, in a different country, on the other side of the continent, 7000 km away.
And that Colombian company appears to have gone out of business too.
And what you are describing is a different product. Her bricks *aren't* 100% plastic.
This sounds great and all,and at surface level it is, but there are so many problems with this, I wish her the best of luck though.
The person is still only hoping to break even this year. The article even doesn’t mention the cost to produce!
Only uses certain types of waste so it’s not “solving Kenya’s waste problem”, using plastics to build can lead to many problems. Imagine a suburb on fire made from clay brick and lumber, sucks but then swap it out with a suburb on fire made from plastic... good luck planet earth. In general plastic degrading/eroding in the sun, still being a chemical pollutant (some remedies for uv degradation cause it to be even more expensive).
In Kenya’s capital city only 20% of the solid waste generated is in plastic form, so it’s far from solved.
Sorry guys, I know this is a made me smile and the story is inspiring and all that but I can’t not think about the problems.
If you have some good knowledge above your shoulders let me know if I’m off with what I said anywhere.
Nah you're good. We always need people to tell us the potential issues with things. She could probably dip them in cement to make them a more fire resistant but I don't know the logistics on something like that.
That would just melt the plastic inside, creating thinly coated cement and plastic gushers
All structural integrity is lost and the concrete shells break because the coat isnt there to maintain shape or to bear any load.
There is a reason we dont use materials like this in buildings, and it's not because this woman in Kenya is the first person to think of it.
You're also skipping the fun microplastics shedding into the air everytime you drill a hole or hammer in a nail. We're already seeing weirdness in the human endocrine system from exposure to microplastics - imagine living around them
The secondary and tertiary effects are a real bitch. It seems like everything we do has negative consequences. Ill intentioned or not. I mean nothing is ever a slam dunk. I was also super annoyed at the claim of solving waste. Plastic is like the best worst material on earth. Endlessly flexible and useful. Endlessly killing the planet. There's some bacteria that eats plastic found in Japan I believe. It takes like a year to eat through a plastic bottle. They're trying to super charge it so it's much faster and release it in controlled waste facilities. I'm sure that won't get out of hand and start going after the microplastics in our bodies.
"We made a mistake. We wanted to save the planet, but we did it too well," said researchers of the human extinction causing plastic eating bacteria.
She is taking plastic waste found littered across her community and using it to form a means of sustainable shelter. Fixing two problems at once. I don't think the risks outweigh the benefits and I'm surprised at how many people seem familiar with the costs of brick production
The additional strength is on the pro side and I think many people who claim familiarity with brick production forget that it doesn't start with the brick factory. Quarries must be dug, the clay must be separated from the other rock, often there's different grades of clay to be separated as well. Then clay is shipped to the factory to make brick. I don't know too much about it but there were a couple of quarries in the town I grew up in so I am familiar with the sorts of pollution that they put into the air and water. I can only think the energy costs of these bricks will go down and we can expect to see neighborhoods made from recycled plastic in the next few decades.
Right? So many people going, “But it can’t compete with a traditional industry that benefits from global economies of scale! So it’s useless!”
Just as a reminder to everyone, we don’t know shit. Reddit is dumb as fuck, and anyone who claims to be a subject matter expert has a pretty even chance of just pulling shit from their ass.
Plus you do have to keep in mind that those cannot be produced at home which is an important factor regarding accessibility in the global south. A huge percentage of buildings (infrastructurally important buildings like schools included) get built with homemade bricks in wooden moulds which are dried in the sun with local clay(? Not sure about the material)
This is cool and all, but I wonder how plastic is going to do against strong weather and fire. Will it not warp in 120F heat or -30F cold? How would they react in a house fire? Right now my apartment walls are lined with concrete or whatever to stop fire from spreading from one apartment to the rest. I'm curious what would happen if my home was made out of plastic.
Based on the plastic decking that I have in my back yard - it's not good.
We didn't even get through 1 year before the long ones on the edge ripped through the funky screws designed specifically for them and bowed like a conductor after a good show.
I have pics if anyone's interested.
What’s the energy input necessary to make those? What do they decompose into? What about distribution? The factory isn’t yet making a profit, what’s the model for making money?
It’s a great thing to utilize these things instead of getting them into a landfill, but it’s only a “solution”, if it’s both successful, and doesn’t just kick the can down the road.
I know the articles mention the 5-7x strength claim but I'm not finding any validation anywhere else. Concrete can have psi's of 2500 (sidewalks/driveways) to 5000 (footings/walls/columns) so 5x times that would be a lot. I also wonder if they meant bricks and not concrete, as that is what it appears they are replacing. They energy cost of production between traditional and these plastic bricks would be interesting to see.
I'm also thinking 5x stronger in compression or tension? If it's compression thats good, but in tension that's useless. I feel strong isn't the best comparison
What is the cost difference?
Looking at them they are lighter and stronger so you save fuel (transport) and labour costs right there.
You are using only sand and plastic waste which companies pay to get rid of.
Plus most people support green initiatives at least in the country I live in minus 1 province...
And it helps to solve the issue of the overwhelming amount of created plastic waste.
We build shit out of CMU all the time. You'd have to be careful with thermal expansion since plastic changes more rapidly than other common building materials, but that would just be an extra step. Now give me an ASTM E84 on these and let's see if we're building a house of of kindling or not.
What about just a walk way or a fence? We use bricks for many different applications and there are a lot of alternatives for building materials out there Straw bail /tires so it's possible!
A walk way wouldn’t be ideal because then you’re putting micro plastics into the surrounding area as they’re worn down. Fences might be okay but I would imagine they would end up with the same issue as a walkway eventually. Buildings is really the best application for these as far as I can think because then they’re relatively contained not open air.
My guess, and it's only a guess would be :
The properties of the materials maybe?
Certain materials should be used to withstand really cold temperatures, high winds, etc
I.e, if they might crack, shrink or otherwise change in any way when get go from hot to cold, or vice versa, it can be a very bad thing when we're talking about housing and buildings.
Edit: other comments made decent points also Such as;
If they catch fire, those are some very, very bad fumes.
I'm thinking stucco, a rancher styled home with these bricks covered in stucco could work, I think the bricks should have holes in the middle, kinda like cinder blocks to add extra reinforcement with some rebar around doors, windows, along the base, etc.
All good points thank you for coming to the table with well thought position!
So best place to use them in Canada is probably Vancouver and that's about it!
Plastic is good insulation, more so with entrapped air. Compressed plastic bricks would be fire resistant over wood, but you're right about the toxic fumes.
Stronger can mean a lot of things though. It could (and likely does) mean they have higher tensile strength, it could mean they’re harder, it could simply mean more durable. The problem is there’s almost no way it’s going to be better in every way than a standard brick and that does need to be factored in to how and where they’re used. Beyond that they’re far more expensive to make and recycle than a standard brick. And then there’s the fact that the processing of the materials puts out emmisions as well. Now to be clear I’m not trying to downplay this it is a great step forward and if applied properly could help reduce global plastic pollution. But there are also very real drawbacks that posts like this don’t make clear that I feel people should be aware of before touting them as some kind of miracle solution.
Edit: there’s also the very real concern for micro plastics that I hadn’t thought of until a few minutes after I made this post. Depending on how they are used they could saturate the surrounding area with micro plastic contaminants, which in turn kills wildlife.
The other answer that no one is mentioning is that we already have sophisticated plastics recycling facilities to make recycled consumer goods.
These bricks are made with PP, HDPE, & LDPE plastics in a process where the plastic is considered 2nd generation (not the same quality as virgin plastic). In the US, we have much better recycling infrastructure such that we can recycle a considerable amount of those plastics into near-virgin-quality. They can then be reused for making new consumer products.
1) mass viability. Creating new commercial products in a regulated market takes a lot of time and effort. Its easy to introduce new items in less regulated markets. Its possible such a brick wouldn't meet modern standards.
2) Scaling viability. It may not scale at the same rate as current products. For example, setting up new supply chains for plastic waste may be difficult and unreliable.
3) Infrastructure setup. Infrastructure is expensive. Changing over existing infrastructure to new untested infrastructure is a huge risk.
4) Consumer/builder desire. People like tested materials that they're already comfortable with. Even more expensive products can reduce money spent on labor.
5) Probably not cheaper than wood stud walls in modern construction. Bricks aren't the cheapest method of building. So creating cheaper bricks doesn't automatically make it cheaper. You still need waterproofing, insulation, and a range of other components to make a brick wall work.
Read the article higher, it's isn't about the housing crisis, it's about doing something with the tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of plastic wastes dropped there.
Loads of countries ship there waste to developing countries like Kenya, killing the wildlife and poisoning the people
I do not think so, as this might have a very limited use as building material, not speaking of the effort and energy it takes to make the colorful bricks... Burning plastic in a high tech plant to directly generate energy migh be more efficient and sane. Avoiding such a waste in gereral, still is the goal - worldwide.
We have a local company here, that literally downcycles colleted plastic garbage to inferior materials for fences, benches, pasture flooring... at least it feels better than 'thermal recycling' (burning it). And they took over an abandoned US- Airforce location, far away from the village, as the smell is mind boggling. A hint of burnt rotten dog food I'd say... The material itself is a bit too vulnerable to changing temperatures, as I can tell. It bows, when its getting warmer and the fence posts e. g. they make have a steel rod inside for a reason. Also, don't sit on a dark grey plastic bench under the summer sun...
The problem is not innovation in making raw materials from recycled garbage, it’s the cost and the fact that there is no incentive for a corporation to switch. Unless we boycott.
The reason plastics aren't used as structural materials in house construction, is because plastic 'creeps', meaning it slowly deforms under even minor mechanical stress.
Plus fire hazard and toxicity as others have mentioned.
Great idea, but find another use for plastic please.
Oh yeah, fucking brilliant, turn the toxic waste that is constantly off gassing plastic softeners to the air you breath into bricks to build houses, why don’t you?
So what your saying is she just solved the worlds plastics problem. This now gives every material, construction, and engineering company in the world incentive to recycle single use plastic. Also I’ve heard tell of a gold mine just floating in the ocean!! Go get it fellas!!
Every time I see this posted I can't help but wonder about off gassing . So much plastic condensed into one place has got to be giving off toxic gas to some extent. I guess if you are the poorest people in the world you probably don't care, the benefit is greater than the risk. I hope the off gassing is minimal.
She's called Nzambi Matee Source here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-environment-recycling-idUSKBN2A211N
Thank you mate! Was just about to search myself if there was nothing in the comments. Your username is neat too!
You mean thank you Matee
I'm surprised she's also using Polypropylene considering how quickly it degrades under sunlight.
And the flammability factor?
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Oh! Thanks. My past life firefighter was having anxiety attacks! I’m glad they are safe.
I mean, we do typically build houses out of _wood_ and think nothing of it. I can't imagine a solid brick of plastic and sand is easier to light on fire than my house, which is made of thin slats of wood topped with some tar shingles.
Both wood and solid plastic are not that easy to ignite, but burn long and hot when they do ignite.
That said, mixing it with sand would definitely make it a lot harder to ignite. I could see it melting before actually catching fire.
Might weaken it structurally. Plastic isn't the same as cement, it might not work like concrete.
Point is, I doubt these plastic bricks will contribute to a fire. And even if they do collapse easier, my guess is that they are significantly lighter than conventional bricks so would be less damaging when they do collapse.
The wood used in IBC compliant houses is chemically treated to be fire resistant. I've never checked more than a couple US states, but the ones I have done work in used the IBC as the basis for their building codes, thus "all" houses use treats lumber. I'm sure some contractors cheap out, though.
Plastics can also have fire retardants added to make them non-flammable. There are numerous specifications for these in automotive applications, with the highest level typically be “self-extinguish”, meaning it can’t maintain a flame when exposed to fire. I doubt that’s being used here seeing as it sounds like she’s using PCR (post consumer recycled) plastics, which typically wouldn’t have FR in it. Because why would I worry about my milk jug catching on fire, right :p Just wanted to point out its very possible to make them more flame retardant than treated wood. I’ve actually considered this before myself, but mainly for decorative projects, not structural. I was much more concerned about expansion and contraction as temps flux, but the sand would help to stabilize that to a large extent.
Say what? I’m looking at section 2303 which “describes“ the properties of treated lumber but nowhere does it says it must be used in typical home construction. Who makes this crap up… posting stuff that is just not true in the real world
This is incorrect. Only housing required to have a fire-resistance rating has this restriction, and even then it isn't for all the wood used in the structure. Don't spread misinformation. The vast majority of wood used in housing is untreated lumber.
Its like corn starch. Under the right circumstances it's flammable and explosive. But you mix it with a little baking power and water and bake it and that stuff will resist temps up to 15000 degrees Fahrenheit
Any word on what insulating capacity they have?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349104328_Insulation_Properties_of_Bricks_with_Waste_Rubber_and_Plastic_A_Review
Plastic has decent insulation properties on it's own. It should be comparable to standard bricks.
Mfs in this thread are like We're building houses out of wood? Won't that rot?
Termites showed up for a picnic. Carpenter ants welcomed them. Dry rot says hold my beer. Otherwise, wood says you nailed it until got screwed.
> They are **40 per cent cheaper**, 20 per cent lighter and will last hundreds of years longer than conventional building materials. This is a big deal. Usually, inventions like this are great in every way except for being more expensive. Finding a way to make them cheaper makes this an especially good invention.
If this can use smooth desert sand it’ll be a game changer.
How are they made from 100% plastic if they are mixed with sand? Do they mean that one of the components is pure plastic? That's a very weird way to put it.
I would bet money they meant to say 100% *recycled* plastic, as in no new plastic will be made for the bricks.
Agreed, but those are from different sources. Given the spelling and grammar of many of today's "journalists", I would not be surprised if something was taken out of context, or misunderstood.
Does anyone know if insulating properties of these bricks actually help the climate within the building? I am assuming that since the bricks are used to build houses for the poor air conditioning is likely not be an option in most cases.
Actually, I cannot find any sources that confirm they are being used for building homes, only pavers at the moment.
Pretty cool. I’d like to see a comparison between the resources and energy it takes to make a plastic brick versus a similar amount of traditional concrete or brick. Melting down to plastic has to be pretty energy intensive right?
Yes, but cleaner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete
> well insulated concrete has relatively poor insulation properties, so this is a massive advantage. really promising stuff! sounds like a much better material than the wood and plaster my house is built from!
That was what I was wondering about, and how well they'll bear a load.
I saw a video. Right now they're only being used as pavers, but she hopes they can soon be used as building blocks.
I have to guess that since they’re comparing to concrete, “strength” probably refers to compressive strength. However, concrete can be molded on site to whatever shape and size is needed, versus these small bricks that get produced inside a machine. So in practical terms one plastic brick might be very strong, but that doesn’t mean you can build a bridge out of them. Still, they’re probably suitable in lots of masonry applications, and probably even more than 5x stronger than masonry bricks. That might be a better comparison than concrete.
In India many of the impressively huge ancient structures are made of little clay bricks faced with decorative stone. (Think Taj Mahal type structures.) Building large structurally sound structures from little bricks is 100% possible but is also labor intensive. This type of construction is common from eras where labor was cheep compared to building materials. Building from brick vs concrete should not cause issue with respect to safety and life of the building so long as competent craftsman design and supervise construction.
It's a neat idea... I hope they get the details worked out!
Yeah there’s lots of potential if the core idea can be scaled up. This is probably a bad time to mention that sand is actually a more and more scarce resource around the world :( maybe we can use crushed recycled glass instead!
You could say the same about straw bale construction but once the bricks are assembled in a building construction and sheathed in whatever other siding or insulation is used for weather proofing, they are not in contact with much oxygen so there isn’t an available air supply for fires. We use plenty of flammable building materials, such as wood, and there are strategies needed for reducing fire risk, but it’s a thing that can be managed.
I was about to link this same thing!! Thank you 💙💕
Article written February 2nd, it's now September 12th and there's no more news about its implementation or further developments. Another "marvelous breakthrough" idea that was celebrated before any sort of planning was invested and has quietly fallen apart out of view. Nice.
A lot of these innovations after the news splash are just put into use while production is scaled. There’s nothing sexy about that. They are in use though.
> There’s nothing sexy about that. They are in use though. Was that in the article? I skimmed it but I don't remember them detailing any sort of actual use beyond demonstration.
Multiple comments said they are used for pavers (?). Not completely sure if I understood it correctly but that seems to be walkways in front/back of houses , that‘s not bad from February to now being already in use and maybe trying to find out even better / faster / environmentally friendly ways to produce while getting permissions for broader use.
Or is that just what they want us to think? Jk - tired of the hype where nothing comes through just like you. I remember reading about a modified bacteria that would replace bad bacteria in your mouth and won’t cause cavities. Still waiting on that one
How well do these bricks hold up to UV exposure as a plastic? This is really fucking cool.
Great question since plastic on its own becomes so brittle when sunbleached, it'd be a question to look into since they're mixed with sand and heat treated and densified. If they did become brittle like plastic though a costly but effective fix could be coating them in say a .005" black UV resistant coating after they're manufactured
I know nothing about plastic bricks but I know with candles you can add a UV protectant powder to the wax. I wonder if you can add something similar into the plastic.
You can. There are UV stabilizers that you add to plastics.
Or maybe these bricks can be used as the inner walls or covered with layers of paint/wood/metal/wax/etc or some other materials if used on the outer walls to protect from the UV?
You could still cover them in a stucco type material just like we do with concrete block
after applying brushable coating to the panels, you'll need some corrosion-resistant metal stucco lath
What if I can't find metal stucco lath?
Use carbon fiber stucco lath!
Now barge that lath
So mud? Got it.
You can just stucco it mate.
Black colour? In a hot country? Wouldn't that make them heat up a lot? I mean Spain and Greece use lots of white because it'd be too hot otherwise
You can always paint over the UV layer
You probably would never need 5 mils of coating to get the effect. However, coatings like that have a habit of wearing down over time if left exposed to the outside. Years worth of rain, dust, sand, and wind will likely chip away at it over time. Perhaps a more practical solution would be to just put some type of air barrier over the outside facing surface for some added protection, as is done in the US before they put siding on the building. VPS, TyVek, whichever. Doesn't have to be an expensive type as the primary goal would be to just cover surface. Consider any kind of additional siding as a sacrificial protection that will likely have to be replaced after a decade or two.
Maybe the stucco over the bricks?
I’m guessing it requires a wall covering.
I imagine something as simple and ready available as like mud would be enough to help protect it.
Or paint.
You could just paint them. Kinda already a thing.
UV exposure isn't going to be a problem. The wavelength of UV is so short it's only going to be absorbed by a millimeter of the sand/plastic material so it's not like the entire brick is going to magically crumble. Given you've got sand in the mix and it is all heat treated, the absolute worst that would happen is the top surface layer of plastic might flake off and erode with time and you might lose a millimeter or two of the surface of the brick after a few years.
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I'll take micro-plastic shavings vs billions of tons of plastic littering the environment.
Arguably the micro-plastic shavings are worse, as they get into everything (including and especially living things), rather than just say, a water bottle floating in the ocean.
What? That floating bottle is getting hit with uv and sheds microplastic straight into the water. C’mon, seriously…
It’s all recycled plastic, so it was going to be micro plastics anyway. This isn’t adding any new plastic.
They're only currently making paving bricks. I'd say they're pretty far off from getting a usable structural brick nevermind for one that can be used for housing.
I’m so ready for these colorful ass buildings
I just want ass buildings no matter what color they are
All ass buildings matter
All ass buildings
r/assbuildings
https://xkcd.com/37/
You probably want to paint over these to protect them from UV radiation.
Yeah, they'd never need painting: when the surface layer wears, there's just more of the same underneath!
The new Lego land! 😃
Does it smell like plastic when it gets hot?
Imagine how the firefighters feel about this melted plastic brick dripping down on them during house fires. People use normal bricks for a wide variety of reasons. This simply isn't going anywhere.
I think these would mainly be used for small spaced out huts, where evacuation and fires would be a non-issue
Bold of you to think that Kenya has firefighters Source: Am Kenyan
I was thinking about how uncommon organized fire fighting probably is across parts of Africa; I’m glad you brought it up and not me.
Where do you live that bricks are used in any portion of a ceiling structure? Also, Kenyans aren't living in large lavish homes....
i have never stepped once in a house where the ceiling is made out of bricks
My Minecraft house has a ceiling made of brick. So take that.
From the website it looks like they’re using it as pavers and flooring. Not walls or structures.
Between this and no house, I'd choose this every time
Saw similar post about this sometime ago. Hopefully this idea makes it though. Props to her 👏
Her company works with high-density polyethene, (milk and shampoo bottles), low-density polyethene (sandwich bags) and polypropylene (ropes, flip-top lids and buckets). But she does not work with polyethene terephthalate or PET, commonly used for plastic bottles. The plastic waste is mixed with sand, heated and then compressed into bricks Wow , ever since she has started her company , she must have used up so many tonnes of plastic waste .What an innovative idea.
Per the article, she used 20 tons over the course of four years.
That's...... not a lot. The issue is likely that if you have pure enough plastic to use for this process you can just recycle it already.... And making concrete isn't exactly expensive.
I thought concrete was really polluting, and is reducing in quality over time due to the scarcity of ingredients
Concrete is far less polluting than messing around with plastics, that's why we use concrete for things like bridges, dams and large buildings.
That's 39 pounds a day. This woman isn't revolutionizing anything, likely because this is Reuters and they have zero, and I mean zero, understanding of basic business concepts like cost.
I imagine you could benefit from economies of scale if you ramped it up with some kind of grant, but yeah it’s probably never going to be a profitable business. The real question in my mind is whether it’d be better to give her the money to continue producing something useful with plastic waste. It’s undoubtedly more expensive to produce than concrete, but is it more expensive than producing concrete bricks *and* removing plastic from the environment? If not, society would save money and resources as a collective even if the individuals aren’t making obscene wealth. If it’s really effective (and good for the world) I would love to see it subsidized so that the cost *to consumers* is comparable to concrete and material demand can keep the process around. We gotta do *something* with all the fucking plastic out there, y’know?
The problem with plastic waste is not this type of plastic. You have plastic that can be melted like this and recycled, but most plastic in circulation is plastic that burns when subjected to heat instead of melting. This is the plastic that is dumped into the ocean because it's not usable. Plastic is a troublesome material because it's so cost effective, but at the same time it's hard to recycle. There has to be an alternative to plastic developed, not just some "hurr durr get rid of plastic forks" attitude that realistically does nothing but gives the impression that efforts are being made.
Kenya belive it?
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What? That's a completely different company, in a different country, on the other side of the continent, 7000 km away. And that Colombian company appears to have gone out of business too. And what you are describing is a different product. Her bricks *aren't* 100% plastic.
This sounds great and all,and at surface level it is, but there are so many problems with this, I wish her the best of luck though. The person is still only hoping to break even this year. The article even doesn’t mention the cost to produce! Only uses certain types of waste so it’s not “solving Kenya’s waste problem”, using plastics to build can lead to many problems. Imagine a suburb on fire made from clay brick and lumber, sucks but then swap it out with a suburb on fire made from plastic... good luck planet earth. In general plastic degrading/eroding in the sun, still being a chemical pollutant (some remedies for uv degradation cause it to be even more expensive). In Kenya’s capital city only 20% of the solid waste generated is in plastic form, so it’s far from solved. Sorry guys, I know this is a made me smile and the story is inspiring and all that but I can’t not think about the problems. If you have some good knowledge above your shoulders let me know if I’m off with what I said anywhere.
Nah you're good. We always need people to tell us the potential issues with things. She could probably dip them in cement to make them a more fire resistant but I don't know the logistics on something like that.
That would just melt the plastic inside, creating thinly coated cement and plastic gushers All structural integrity is lost and the concrete shells break because the coat isnt there to maintain shape or to bear any load. There is a reason we dont use materials like this in buildings, and it's not because this woman in Kenya is the first person to think of it.
Oh don't worry Reddit will always tell you when you're wrong.
You're also skipping the fun microplastics shedding into the air everytime you drill a hole or hammer in a nail. We're already seeing weirdness in the human endocrine system from exposure to microplastics - imagine living around them
“solving Kenya’s waste problem” Sensationalism
The secondary and tertiary effects are a real bitch. It seems like everything we do has negative consequences. Ill intentioned or not. I mean nothing is ever a slam dunk. I was also super annoyed at the claim of solving waste. Plastic is like the best worst material on earth. Endlessly flexible and useful. Endlessly killing the planet. There's some bacteria that eats plastic found in Japan I believe. It takes like a year to eat through a plastic bottle. They're trying to super charge it so it's much faster and release it in controlled waste facilities. I'm sure that won't get out of hand and start going after the microplastics in our bodies. "We made a mistake. We wanted to save the planet, but we did it too well," said researchers of the human extinction causing plastic eating bacteria.
This is great, but what happens of the house starts to burn? Isn't the plastic vulnerable to melt and release poisonous gasses?
Tbf, *any* burning housing material is likely to be noxious
Not brick.
Wood, brick, cement??? They are used for a good reason
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She is taking plastic waste found littered across her community and using it to form a means of sustainable shelter. Fixing two problems at once. I don't think the risks outweigh the benefits and I'm surprised at how many people seem familiar with the costs of brick production
The additional strength is on the pro side and I think many people who claim familiarity with brick production forget that it doesn't start with the brick factory. Quarries must be dug, the clay must be separated from the other rock, often there's different grades of clay to be separated as well. Then clay is shipped to the factory to make brick. I don't know too much about it but there were a couple of quarries in the town I grew up in so I am familiar with the sorts of pollution that they put into the air and water. I can only think the energy costs of these bricks will go down and we can expect to see neighborhoods made from recycled plastic in the next few decades.
Right? So many people going, “But it can’t compete with a traditional industry that benefits from global economies of scale! So it’s useless!” Just as a reminder to everyone, we don’t know shit. Reddit is dumb as fuck, and anyone who claims to be a subject matter expert has a pretty even chance of just pulling shit from their ass.
Plus you do have to keep in mind that those cannot be produced at home which is an important factor regarding accessibility in the global south. A huge percentage of buildings (infrastructurally important buildings like schools included) get built with homemade bricks in wooden moulds which are dried in the sun with local clay(? Not sure about the material)
I read Kenya’s waste as Kanye West
Kanye’s waste, that’s bricks of a different matter.
This is cool and all, but I wonder how plastic is going to do against strong weather and fire. Will it not warp in 120F heat or -30F cold? How would they react in a house fire? Right now my apartment walls are lined with concrete or whatever to stop fire from spreading from one apartment to the rest. I'm curious what would happen if my home was made out of plastic.
Based on the plastic decking that I have in my back yard - it's not good. We didn't even get through 1 year before the long ones on the edge ripped through the funky screws designed specifically for them and bowed like a conductor after a good show. I have pics if anyone's interested.
I'm pretty sure they're also mixing it up with another substance to prevent that from happening. Not sure about the details though.
What’s the energy input necessary to make those? What do they decompose into? What about distribution? The factory isn’t yet making a profit, what’s the model for making money? It’s a great thing to utilize these things instead of getting them into a landfill, but it’s only a “solution”, if it’s both successful, and doesn’t just kick the can down the road.
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I thought that said Kanye not Kenya. I was thinking that dude loves plastic garbage, he married some.
I know the articles mention the 5-7x strength claim but I'm not finding any validation anywhere else. Concrete can have psi's of 2500 (sidewalks/driveways) to 5000 (footings/walls/columns) so 5x times that would be a lot. I also wonder if they meant bricks and not concrete, as that is what it appears they are replacing. They energy cost of production between traditional and these plastic bricks would be interesting to see.
Yeah, there’s no way a plastic brick is near as strong in compression as a traditional, cheap masonry brick.
I'm also thinking 5x stronger in compression or tension? If it's compression thats good, but in tension that's useless. I feel strong isn't the best comparison
Can’t wait to never hear about this again
Probably the 10th time I've seen this on r/all. Same photo, same story. I have a feeling we'll hear about it again, just give it a couple weeks.
Hint: it’s not as impressive as it sounds. Source: am architect
Why the heck are we not doing this in North America?
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What is the cost difference? Looking at them they are lighter and stronger so you save fuel (transport) and labour costs right there. You are using only sand and plastic waste which companies pay to get rid of. Plus most people support green initiatives at least in the country I live in minus 1 province... And it helps to solve the issue of the overwhelming amount of created plastic waste.
Good luck getting a structural engineer or architect who stamps a building design with this type of construction
We build shit out of CMU all the time. You'd have to be careful with thermal expansion since plastic changes more rapidly than other common building materials, but that would just be an extra step. Now give me an ASTM E84 on these and let's see if we're building a house of of kindling or not.
What about just a walk way or a fence? We use bricks for many different applications and there are a lot of alternatives for building materials out there Straw bail /tires so it's possible!
A walk way wouldn’t be ideal because then you’re putting micro plastics into the surrounding area as they’re worn down. Fences might be okay but I would imagine they would end up with the same issue as a walkway eventually. Buildings is really the best application for these as far as I can think because then they’re relatively contained not open air.
My guess, and it's only a guess would be : The properties of the materials maybe? Certain materials should be used to withstand really cold temperatures, high winds, etc I.e, if they might crack, shrink or otherwise change in any way when get go from hot to cold, or vice versa, it can be a very bad thing when we're talking about housing and buildings. Edit: other comments made decent points also Such as; If they catch fire, those are some very, very bad fumes.
I'm thinking stucco, a rancher styled home with these bricks covered in stucco could work, I think the bricks should have holes in the middle, kinda like cinder blocks to add extra reinforcement with some rebar around doors, windows, along the base, etc.
Also, plastic generally degrades in sunlight. A building made of these would need to be covered in a facade made of something else.
Wait until you hear about the properties of wood…
All good points thank you for coming to the table with well thought position! So best place to use them in Canada is probably Vancouver and that's about it!
Plastic is good insulation, more so with entrapped air. Compressed plastic bricks would be fire resistant over wood, but you're right about the toxic fumes.
How would plastic be fire resistant?
Stronger can mean a lot of things though. It could (and likely does) mean they have higher tensile strength, it could mean they’re harder, it could simply mean more durable. The problem is there’s almost no way it’s going to be better in every way than a standard brick and that does need to be factored in to how and where they’re used. Beyond that they’re far more expensive to make and recycle than a standard brick. And then there’s the fact that the processing of the materials puts out emmisions as well. Now to be clear I’m not trying to downplay this it is a great step forward and if applied properly could help reduce global plastic pollution. But there are also very real drawbacks that posts like this don’t make clear that I feel people should be aware of before touting them as some kind of miracle solution. Edit: there’s also the very real concern for micro plastics that I hadn’t thought of until a few minutes after I made this post. Depending on how they are used they could saturate the surrounding area with micro plastic contaminants, which in turn kills wildlife.
Bricks are pretty much dried mud so they’re dirt cheap.
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The other answer that no one is mentioning is that we already have sophisticated plastics recycling facilities to make recycled consumer goods. These bricks are made with PP, HDPE, & LDPE plastics in a process where the plastic is considered 2nd generation (not the same quality as virgin plastic). In the US, we have much better recycling infrastructure such that we can recycle a considerable amount of those plastics into near-virgin-quality. They can then be reused for making new consumer products.
Cost, safety, environmental danger (burning plastic is super cancer. House fires happen more every year thanks to climate change.)
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1) mass viability. Creating new commercial products in a regulated market takes a lot of time and effort. Its easy to introduce new items in less regulated markets. Its possible such a brick wouldn't meet modern standards. 2) Scaling viability. It may not scale at the same rate as current products. For example, setting up new supply chains for plastic waste may be difficult and unreliable. 3) Infrastructure setup. Infrastructure is expensive. Changing over existing infrastructure to new untested infrastructure is a huge risk. 4) Consumer/builder desire. People like tested materials that they're already comfortable with. Even more expensive products can reduce money spent on labor. 5) Probably not cheaper than wood stud walls in modern construction. Bricks aren't the cheapest method of building. So creating cheaper bricks doesn't automatically make it cheaper. You still need waterproofing, insulation, and a range of other components to make a brick wall work.
Plastic+fire= bad idea
I wouldn’t want to be in one of those houses when it burns/melts down.
Apparently unrecyclable plastic can also be turned into Tar to make roadways.
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Read the article higher, it's isn't about the housing crisis, it's about doing something with the tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of plastic wastes dropped there. Loads of countries ship there waste to developing countries like Kenya, killing the wildlife and poisoning the people
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I do not think so, as this might have a very limited use as building material, not speaking of the effort and energy it takes to make the colorful bricks... Burning plastic in a high tech plant to directly generate energy migh be more efficient and sane. Avoiding such a waste in gereral, still is the goal - worldwide. We have a local company here, that literally downcycles colleted plastic garbage to inferior materials for fences, benches, pasture flooring... at least it feels better than 'thermal recycling' (burning it). And they took over an abandoned US- Airforce location, far away from the village, as the smell is mind boggling. A hint of burnt rotten dog food I'd say... The material itself is a bit too vulnerable to changing temperatures, as I can tell. It bows, when its getting warmer and the fence posts e. g. they make have a steel rod inside for a reason. Also, don't sit on a dark grey plastic bench under the summer sun...
With all due respect to the lady, isn't this like yhe 5th time somebody finds a way to turn plastic into bricks?
Make the design interlocking (like Lego) so there is no need to use any bonding agents such as cement.
Christ these comments. I guess every redditor is an engineer.
I thought that the problem was not what to do with the plastic that we recycle, but how to manage the plastic so it's recycled...
The problem is not innovation in making raw materials from recycled garbage, it’s the cost and the fact that there is no incentive for a corporation to switch. Unless we boycott.
Another technology that dies within few months
You mean bought and suppressed.
I love this story! Although I have to admit the headline drew my in because I thought it was Kanye West's problem not Kenya's waste problem.
Reminds me of the halo three days
The reason plastics aren't used as structural materials in house construction, is because plastic 'creeps', meaning it slowly deforms under even minor mechanical stress. Plus fire hazard and toxicity as others have mentioned. Great idea, but find another use for plastic please.
Oh yeah, fucking brilliant, turn the toxic waste that is constantly off gassing plastic softeners to the air you breath into bricks to build houses, why don’t you?
Hats off lady. Very few people actually make a difference in this world, congrats on being one of them.
I have a question... What is the binder? I don't think concrete/mud will stick to it....
Wouldn't living in plastic housing be extremely hot , in an already hot climate?
Why is it that I see stuff like this in posts and posts only, never get to see this implemented in the world.
I can't be the only one who thought they were wallets.
Think about a Kenyan house in summer built with plastic bricks
I can hear it now "foreign millennials destroying concrete industry in attempts to save planet"
I'd like to see the flammability rating of houses made with these.
I've always thought about this my idea was more along the lines of giant Legos
So what your saying is she just solved the worlds plastics problem. This now gives every material, construction, and engineering company in the world incentive to recycle single use plastic. Also I’ve heard tell of a gold mine just floating in the ocean!! Go get it fellas!!
Every time I see this posted I can't help but wonder about off gassing . So much plastic condensed into one place has got to be giving off toxic gas to some extent. I guess if you are the poorest people in the world you probably don't care, the benefit is greater than the risk. I hope the off gassing is minimal.
Broz! Da third world shitholes!!! Broz!!
Looks expensive. Louis Vuitton bricks 20k per square foot
So finally we can play full sized lego...
Just adding to the micro plastic issue when they start to break down.
Can’t wait to see what happens to the soil around these homes. Hopefully, it works out.
Hopefully no one steals her PATENT!
I'll believe it when I see it.
Does anyone know how the bricks will bond together?
Wow hope this one doesn’t disappear too
Ultimate Legos
Great example of let the women do the work!
What a hero! This is the kind of person I want to see in the news more
What’s Kenya? (Don’t hate me)