Reuse of Natural Waste Material for Making Light Weight Bricks

Bricks are a widely used construction and building material around the world. Bricks are prepared from natural waste material which comprises of orange peels and coconut waste. Clay is used as a binding material for natural waste material and paper mill waste. The main objective of the present study is to reduce the quantity of clay with natural waste material. The orange peels and coconut waste which otherwise is land filled has been utilized to make construction bricks that serves a purpose of solid waste management. These wastes are used to reduce the quantity of clay as there is a greater shortage of clay in many parts of world. Initially, characterization of paper mill waste has been carried out by XRF, XRD and SEM. The SEM monographs shows that the waste has porous and fibrous structure. The bricks of prepared by orange peels and coconut waste with varying compositions of clay reduced the quantity of clay by (10% 40% wt) and (10% 60%) respectively and tested as per Bureau of Indian (BIS) 1077:1992 (fifth revision) and ASTM C 67-03a standards. From experimentation it is observed that waste create bricks (WCB) prepared is light weight, shock absorbing and meets compressive strength requirements of ASTM C 67-03a and BIS. The brick making procedure being simple can be undertaken as rural entrepreneurship by unskilled labours of developing countries.