At least in theory, many plastics are highly recyclable. Unfortunately, in reality, most plastics end up as waste, causing harm to the environment and no lasting value to society. In order to study possible ways to reuse this material, [Rehaan33] built a drilling rig to make bricks for school projects from waste plastic.
The purpose of the project is to use waste plastic, in this case high-impact polystyrene, and transform it into bricks that can be used as a low-cost building material. The material is shredded, then placed in a steel mold and heated to 270 degrees in an oven. Since polystyrene is a thermoplastic, it can be easily heated in this way for reforming without compromising the properties of the material. After heating, the mold is placed in a press, which uses parts of an old drill press to press down on the steel plate to help shape the final shape of the brick.
Although you are unlikely to see old soda bottles used to build skyscrapers in New York in the short term, this technology may be a good way to help eliminate plastic waste in impoverished areas and prevent plastic from flowing into the world's oceans. The project provided a useful learning experience and allowed [Rehaan33] to master the skills in metal processing, machine design, and thermoplastic work. Recycling plastics is a key area of interest to many people, especially in the field of 3D printing, and many people are exploring ways to reuse thermoplastics in a more effective way. If you have your own project to convert waste plastic into useful materials, please let us know!
From a fire safety perspective, I am skeptical of using plastic bricks as building materials, let alone the material properties. Selling unproven concepts as a benefit to "poor areas" is just icing on the cake.
Plastic parts are mostly used for thin shell parts, but waste plastics should be considered as bulk materials. In the 1970s we used Banbury rubber processing machines to recycle plastics. Although bricks may not be the best use, I believe there are many uses because all plastics are now Are dumped in landfills and at sea,
The remaining material properties are more likely to cause IMO problems-of course plastics can burn, but large amounts of plastics with smooth surfaces like this are actually difficult to properly ignite. It is not as particularly flame retardant as wood and furniture in many houses.
The correct use of this concept to dispose of plastic waste is really effective-even though I think it may require carbon dioxide to be effective? The insulation value of foam-filled expanded bricks, relying on steel/wood/concrete beams as the structure and filling the voids to make a well-insulated wall-once the outer surface is rendered, it will be difficult to make it burn-if you use some bicarbonate to make It foams and decomposes into carbon dioxide when heated, and the bubbles inside try to extinguish the flames at first.
This sounds great and very smart ÷
You are basically creating an expanded plastic brick. Interesting idea. With some additives, it might be interesting. The problem is not the combustion itself, but the temperature. Plastic will soften and melt, even if bicarbonate prevents it from burning directly.
Still worth a look IMHO.
I hope to make it into 3V and 5V panels for dome residential construction. Use air-filled holes and then spray concrete inside and outside. Then, this will build a house that is fireproof and can withstand F5 storms, such as plains and coastal areas.
Fire safety also immediately appeared in my mind. However, if they use thermoplastics as adhesives around thermosets, which are traditionally non-recyclable, there may be hope.
This is reminiscent of its possible use as a matrix for composite materials, whether it is a thermoset material or a material with stronger dimensions. If it is not a brick, but is rolled into a corrugated board, it can also be sandwiched in between to form various semi-structural components. Regardless of the shape, the operating temperature range may limit the application, and there are still problems with handling at the end of the life cycle.
Considering that it may not be suitable for use as a building material for walls, why not use it for road repairs or construction of sidewalks?
They are suitable for CNCing, especially polyethylene.
I won't build a house with them, but compared to 3D printed PLA brackets, I prefer a bracket made of ground HDPE.
But the house is built of wood, so from a flammability point of view, this may not be worse or better than this. Perhaps some flame retardant ingredients can be mixed.
Wood is resilient in a fire because it will scorch, form an insulating barrier, slow down the rate of burning, and the structure can remain immobile for a long time even when burning. Some wood laminates with flame retardants in mind actually support longer than steel beams.
Plastic will soften and melt before it burns, and your walls will start to collapse before the actual fire spreads there.
Not to mention the fact that the smoke from burning plastic is often highly toxic compared to wood smoke, which makes it less likely for any occupant to survive a house fire and may endanger firefighters and neighbors.
As we all know, plastic releases a lot of toxic chemicals when it burns, but it seems that CO is the most directly dangerous gas released by fire, which is also the hazard of wood fire. I don’t actually remember hearing that someone was killed by anything else in the fire.
Plastic brick sounds very recyclable. But the question is whether it is really useful.
Considering that the plastic truss engineering used for bridges was once considered a hot new thing with shorter spans. (Microplastics are a big problem though. California bans the use of Styrofoam as a packaging material. (I think we all agree that Styrofoam breaks down into countless parts in the slightest contact... .))
Nevertheless, it is an advantage as an ingenious method of compressing and curing plastic into ingots that are easy to manage and easy to stack.
If you add enough sand to the PS chip before heating and forming the brick-you will get a very useful building material. You can manage it like ordinary bricks, but don't use those bricks to build a furnace.
In addition, you can change the mold and make polymer sand tiles that are very suitable for use in the backyard.
Tile is a terrible idea-microplastics.
Based on this alone, plastic is not ideal as a surface that needs to be wear-resistant.
Individuals may not care about it, and the impact is long-term. But this is not a good idea after all, just like many other things.
Exceptions can be made in areas where low friction is required, but low-resistance floor tiles sound more like a prank than practical.
The problem is the macroscopic debris, because the enzymes used by bacteria to break down plastics act on the ends of the polymer chains, and in larger materials, the ends are not exposed. The smaller the particle, the more likely it is to find the end of the polymer chain on the surface, and the faster the rate of biodegradation.
Once you get deep into the microscopic particles, they really cannot survive in the wild for many seasons. In fact, your powdered plastic and sand bricks are likely to be eaten and fall into dust within a few years. At least you have to keep it dry, or fill it with some kind of poison like they do with pressure-treated wood (this also releases toxic particles).
Confusingly, the definition of the "microplastic" category is to include particles up to 5 mm in size. These particles are not microscopic, but just small pieces of plastic. These are problematic particles because they are not so large that they can be easily consumed, but they will be eaten by organisms that cannot digest them.
Microplastics include any "plastics".
Therefore, from PLA to PTFE and almost any other polymer in between.
PLA is an ester that is eaten by most microorganisms. It will quickly decompose in nature. If it is implanted in human tissues, it will even be absorbed. (PLA is also used as a support material in medicine. Its ability to be slowly eroded means that the body slowly begins to bear more burdens, making the transition less sudden and easier for the patient.) However, put Put it in a dry dessert, it may last for decades...
Although PTFE is a fluorocarbon, it will not really degrade due to its strong internal bonds and excellent chemical resistance.
The position of PET on the scale is a good question, at least it is not as chemically resistant as PTFE.
However, the definition of "microplastics" may be reduced from 5 mm to smaller. After all, 5mm is a fairly large "particle", if it is a stone, it is finely divided gravel. No sand, let alone clay...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_size
Depends on the type of polystyrene foam. The non-beads are very clean.
It is free for your home. There are no scattered beads. But imagine what happens after a year of being exposed to ultraviolet light and being beaten in a stream or ocean wave. It will become a tiny plastic dust with less buoyancy, so it can go deep. And it is impossible to filter in large quantities.
So... apply it to prevent UV rays.
When you use it up, either recycle it again or put it in a landfill. Don't throw it into the sea, and don't let it be washed into the river, it will eventually take it there.
Why not burn plastic directly as fuel? I don't know anyone who wants to live in a house made of plastic bricks. It just looks disgusting.
My house is made of pine wood and Styrofoam. Once it's all fixed with cement, you can't tell what the wall is made of.
The first game failed...
"Once it's all fixed with cement, you can't tell what the wall is made of."
That's not a good thing.
In the houses of Wattle and Daub, Daub often contained animal feces.
However, when it is all dried and painted, it will look beautiful.
Throw some plastic into the fireplace. When you burn it, see what good smell and smoke it produces :). See if your neighbor likes it :).
The brick idea is very suitable for compact storage and transportation, but for recycling...but you do need energy to "make" bricks, so it's not free.
When burned at a suitable temperature (over 1000 degrees Celsius), polystyrene mainly burns into CO2 and H2O, as well as residues of some strange additives.
Of course, not all plastics work the same way, but each plastic can be processed more adequately than others. Under suitable conditions, the combustion of polystyrene releases enough heat as an auxiliary fuel.
If it is not "burned at the right temperature", polystyrene will release a large amount of toxic acrolein.
I used a garbage compactor dug from the recycling center and a large propane torch to heat the compression chamber. I used milk cans (HDPE) and used the resulting bricks as paving stones instead of structural building materials. HDPE is more stable and less toxic than PS, but you need a higher temperature to melt it.
There are many ways to burn things. Some are better at complete combustion, some are worse. I have a fireplace and a wood chip stove to heat my home. The furnace burns more efficiently, has less ash, and may also produce fewer small particles of smoke. Even in the fireplace, the combustion efficiency of the particles is higher (almost no smoke). There are already furnaces that burn all kinds of hazardous materials, and I have heard about the regulations needed to safely burn all kinds of plastics (such as the minimum time for smoke in the combustion chamber).
But: Don't burn plastic in the fireplace. Seriously, it will smell bad in your home, it will poison everyone around you, and you might risk the chimney catching fire.
No one recommends this. Things are not done like this.
1) Be careful when burning plastics. Many styrene-based plastics produce an impressive series of toxic fumes when burned. The main question is which additives are there, but these usually include substances such as phosphorus and cyanide.
2) Styrene, actually an unbalanced hydrocarbon, will produce *dense* black smoke. This is very useful. When I was young, I often sailed, and many of my friends would hide some large pieces of Styrofoam in their boats.
In an emergency, they can be ignited and float downwind when burning. The thick black plume will attract attention within a certain distance, which is a locally recognized distress signal.
Burning plastic will reduce its carbon to carbon dioxide, leading to global warming. The carbon in plastics has been sequestered as oil for hundreds of millions of years. It is best to send it back to the earth as a landfill.
Wouldn't it be better to burn it and let the trees convert carbon dioxide into biomass? Then it will actually improve the soil instead of poisoning it.
great! Therefore, we will ban all meat and dairy production, implement World War II-style rationing to reduce calorie consumption in developed countries, and turn all released land into sustainably managed forests and wetlands for carbon sequestration.
How does it poison the soil? I thought it would not break down.
Burning it as a fuel is a good idea, but for some reason, burning waste is evil, so forget it.
You might like to read this NatGeo article (soft paywall, turn off javascript): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/should-we-burn-plastic-waste/
I leave it here because the conclusion supports my point: burning plastic is obviously not a renewable energy source. If we build factories to burn them as energy sources, it is to admit that we will have a continuous flow of plastic "fuel" and that the initial investment in the factories is worthwhile in the long run. I think this is not the best idea, because it will stimulate the production of plastic waste to some extent. Now we find ourselves in trouble because we have been told that "plastic can be used and it is recyclable", but we find that its efficacy is exaggerated.
> If we build plants to burn them as energy sources, we recognize that we will have a continuous flow of plastic "fuel"
That is assuming that plastics are the only thing they can burn. Garbage incinerators can burn almost anything, so you can put plastic in the trash stream-when there is less plastic, it is usually replaced with cardboard and paper, wood and cellulose materials.
For example, if the plastic bottle is replaced by wax cardboard, you still have roughly the same amount of material going into the combustion. If you are wearing a cotton shirt instead of a polyester shirt, you can still dispose of it if the shirt is worn out. The argument that waste incinerators will run out of fuel is assuming that we will stop consumption altogether.
Bad weather will tell you what your house is made of in less than 15 minutes.
Plastics used in construction materials usually face two problems-flammability and viscoelastic deformation. You can add flame retardants, but you definitely don’t want bricks, beams, or structural elements to sag or squash over time. However, recycled polyethylene has been used to make plastic "wood" for items such as decks, porches and benches.
Plastic wood mixed with wood must be well supported to avoid sagging. A brand with the same size as the normal nominal size wood (some of their ads show fancy decks that are curved into a curve) have weathering problems. After several years of exposure, the wood chips near the surface will expand and disappear with weathering, making the surface rough and dented.
The problem of adding expansion rate? Have you ever used pvc or composite wood or saw vinyl siding too tightly attached in cold weather? How will these expand/shrink with the weather? What binds the bricks to each other? I believe the biggest problem is the manufacturer’s mixed resin waste, but this situation may have changed in the past few years and may be enough to replace loosely laid landscape tiles, depending on whether the plasticizer will change over time Churn...
Maybe not the best choice for building the main structure, but I would be happy to use such materials to build a storage room/workshop.
James May built a house out of brand-name plastic bricks?
Some of its failures are more related to water than fire
More on the use of plastic waste (old news):
https://preciousplastic.com https://www.youtube.com/c/davehakkens
Plastic is being reused, not recycled. If it is recycled, it will be broken down into chemicals that can be used in other products, hoping that it will not produce pollution or dangerous by-products. The only thing missing in their concept is the three round bumps on the top, which feels great when stepping on them in the dark (and lead you to create new swear words 😂).
Give it some paint options, and welcome sidewalks and "brick" fences.
This is a brilliant idea. This is also great for landscape retaining walls.
In Australia, we mine carbon and send it to China, and then they send us other forms of carbon, and then we use them to fill the big hole we made in the first place. Not sure how the carbon capture equation ultimately works, but we can always dig into it again because we know exactly where it is.
A few years ago, a local recycling company had a clever idea to mold recycled plastic into ordinary-sized bricks with the same shape as Lego bricks, with 8 protrusions on the top and 8 matching holes on the bottom. They sell them as toys; children can build forts, rides, park benches, and other temporary structures. The colors are often random, full of swirls and patterns (no matter what happened in the mix that week). But this does not matter for non-serious uses.
Alas, they look so much like Lego. They received an injunction from Lego and had to stop.
But it is a good use for recycled plastic. I have always wondered if there are entrepreneurs who can make "toy" plastic molding machines so that children can make their own Lego bricks from family plastic waste.
"" "What a brilliant idea".. "Modern" buildings have more than enough plastic and synthetic materials." "What a great idea" "Look at all the fatal fires that have occurred in buildings over the years... . Shure a "good idea""'Well...maybe it is a good idea to find another use for this plastic. Recycling is good, but it cannot be used as a building material. ———————————————
In flammable areas like CA, it seems that only buildings surrounded by air on the ground can be fixed, but huge plastic bricks can provide good insect-proof, waterproof and buried footings for buildings. If the seven-foot-deep soil (in the deep frost depth area...) exceeds 500 degrees or catches fire, then you have encountered a serious problem that cannot be solved by using concrete alone.
Well, the price of this quality polyester waste is about US$1200 per ton (Alibaba), so since its weight is actually 1 kg, the material price of each brick is US$1.20.
Just for comparison: a classic hollow brick with approximately twice the height is sold for 0.72 Euros (approximately US$0.75) in Germany.
If anything, it's expensive (not surprising).
However, a) this is an impressive student project, b) I can see how to use a small group of insertable elements to make custom-shaped bricks on site, such as for customizing window shapes and pipes.
If you search on YouTube, there are many videos of waste plastic mixed with sand to make building materials. The most common one is shingles, and the other is sidewalk pavers. In some poorer countries, this has become a small business, mainly using waste
Although plastics cannot be reused endlessly, it is best to reuse the plastics we have in a way that allows them to continue to be reused, and most importantly, do not touch nature. Plastic will decompose over time, and the small fragments left behind will cause various problems for plants and animals... It is best not to unnecessarily downgrade reusable items to static items, such as park benches or buildings Material (brick).
I am skeptical of its use as a building material, but it reminds me of my paving stones. They are expensive, maybe these plastic bricks can be used for that.
Skyscrapers will not be built with soda bottles. The soda bottle is not polystyrene.
Let's design a project that reuses waste plastic without electricity!
*Designed manual press*
Now we put the bricks into this electric oven!
Please be kind and respectful to help make the comment section great. (Comment Policy)
This website uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how to handle your comment data.
By using our website and services, you explicitly agree to the placement of our performance, functionality and advertising cookies. learn more