A Study of Manufacturing Bricks Using Plastic Wastes

Plastic waste which is increasing day by day becomes eyesore and in turn pollutes the environment, especially in high mountain villages where no garbage collection system exists. A large amount of plastic is being brought into the tourist trekking regions are discarded or burned which leads to the contamination of environment and air. Hence, these waste plastics are to be effectively utilized. Low-density polyethylene bags are cleaned and added with sand at particular percentages to obtain high strength bricks that possess thermal and sound insulation properties to control pollution and to reduce the overall cost of construction; this is one of the best ways to avoid the accumulation of plastic waste which is an on-degradable pollutant. This alternatively saves the quantity of sand/clay that has to be taken away from the precious river beds/mines. The plastic waste is naturally available in surplus quantity and hence the cost factor comes down. Also coloring agents can be added to the mixture to attain desired shades. Hence in this thesis, an attempt is made to study regard the properties of the brick which is manufactured using plastic wastes. The present work deals with the manufacturing and analysis of bricks made with waste plastic (LDPE) and fine aggregates. The bricks produced are light weight, have smooth surface and fine edges, do not have cracks and have high crushing strength and very low water absorption. The bricks are manufactured by heating waste plastic to temperature range of 120 to 150 degree centigrade and mixing sand to the molten plastic.