Paper Waste Makes World's Grossest-Looking Bricks

Another "green" brick, this time made like sausage

By Colin Lecher Posted 12.20.2012 at 10:00 am 12 Comments

The Paper Brick C. Martinez et al., Universidad de Jaén

We don't want to be unkind, because it's nice that people are working toward a future where we won't have to rely on traditional brick-making methods, which produce tons of carbon dioxide. But a new idea for "green" bricks is a little less, uh, aesthetically pleasing than other ones we've noticed. (See here and here.)

That's the downside. The upside is this brick-making project comes from stuff in the recycling bin. Researchers from the University of Jaen in Spain collected waste from a paper factory and sludge from the factory's waste-water purification process. By mixing that with clay and sending it through a "pressure and extrusion machine," the researchers got bricks. (The "pressure and extrusion machine" is also reminiscent of the sausage-making process, which doesn't help with the disgustingness.)

The composition of the bricks makes them especially good insulators, the researchers say. But they aren't perfect. Though they pass legal requirements for use, they are less durable than traditional bricks. So we probably won't see many of these in buildings. Good news for our eyeballs.

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12 Comments

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Curious_One

12/20/12 at 10:07 am

How is this uglier than a conventional brick again? I wasn't under the impression that bricks were prized for their beauty anyway...

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Obie Juan

12/20/12 at 10:45 am

So when someone says, "I nearly crapped a brick", I'll envision this. Wicked.

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Robot

12/20/12 at 10:51 am

It's clay... sheesh.

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the_levelhead

12/20/12 at 11:14 am

...common red bricks are often used for their decorative beauty in homes, gardens and drives . . . in fact used bricks are often sought after for accent use in new home construction.
the question here is can they be made to be appealing and where the can they be used. being this seems to be a new an innovative idea, lets not dismiss it outright. there may be a practical and beneficial use for these chitty looking bricks.

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Greenmatrix

12/20/12 at 11:44 am

Not disgusting really. Looks more like a large piece of clay + a machine to make it.

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gizmowiz

12/20/12 at 11:58 am

Since when are bricks made in the shape of crap? It would be astoundingly hard to stack these and mortar together!

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Clifford Cannon

12/20/12 at 12:37 pm

this is a test or the idea, if it went to market you can bet they would be made by better extruding equipment and probably the final product would be very simular to regular bricks

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Robot

12/20/12 at 3:39 pm

We are doomed! DOOMED! I say!!!!
Technology has automated the "ASSH##E!!!"

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ejfineran

12/21/12 at 10:57 am

"bricks are often sought after for accent use in new home construction." I have news for you 'the_levelhead' - in Europe most houses are built entirely from brick, they tend to last longer than the wood sheds you are used to...

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sokra

12/21/12 at 12:39 pm

Holy crap, nobody noticed the real intention of this brick. The report says "collected waste from a paper factory and sludge from the factory's waste-water purification process" will be mixed into this bricks. Do you know what is inside those sludge? This is equivalent to saying lets get rid of nuclear waste by mixing it into road work congregates.

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quasi44

12/22/12 at 3:26 am

From the different source articles, I saw that Ginger Dosier, an architect, has one that's bacteria, aggregate, urea (pee) and microcrystal. She seems to get great play out of the three listed, but I have no idea why. The big reason for these green bricks is the massive pollutants put into the air by traditional methodology. Yet she gets great recognition with bricks made from a bacteria that produces a greenhouse gas 320 times more harmful than CO2. They give passing credit to the engineer who used fly ash from a coal plant and pressure. Can't figger that out either, because his is by far the best of these three materials, and the only one proven to be better than a traditional brick, when freezing cycles is considered. 100% better. This article on this material is nowhere near forthcoming, so we can obviously make no informed opinion on it, other than PopSci not liking that color that's so close to regular brick that I can't figure out why they don't like it. They must know more than us about the material makeup or something.

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