A team of engineering students from Sona College of Technology have invented a innovative solution to reduce plastic waste. By combining hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) waste with sand, they have devised a method to create a brick with a three times higher compressive strength than the common red brick. This brick, called the ‘poly brick’, is much lighter and quicker and cheaper to produce than traditional bricks and is also able to meeting water absorption standards.
Dr N Karuppasamy, an assistant professor in Civil Engineering at Sona College of Technology, mentored the team. The team comprising Aravind Kumar from the final year, Kamalesh J B and Dharani Raj U both from third year, Adhavan P and Harshini E K both from second year, came up with the idea when taking part in a nationwide competition. The process to create the brick starts by sterilising the PPE kit with UV rays, then heating the waste to a temperature of 160 degrees centigrade, mixing sand with the plastic and then casting into shapes of bricks.
The main advantage of the poly bricks is that they are eco friendly as there is no need for cement nor for water in the process, leading to much lesser emissions than when making common bricks. Therefore, the PPE plastic waste is only subjected to temperatures of less than 200 degrees centigrade. This is in particular response to the World Health Organization’s request to reduce the plastic waste resulting from the production of PPE kits during the Covid-19 pandemic, which typically swell up landfills.
The poly bricks can be used as regular bricks to make walls, as well as paver blocks as an alternative to red bricks. They have also been tested to have good adhesion with regards to cement, and can thus be plastered with cement. A patent application has been filed for this technology too.
The Vice Chairman of Sona Group of educational institutions, Chocko Valliappa, stated that the technology is made available to hospital chains and other organizations interested in its use. Through the adoption of the poly bricks, not only will plastic waste from PPE kits be reduced, but pollution caused by the production of traditional cement bricks is also decreased.
