Turning plastic waste into building materials: a new approach to reduce material cost and environmental pollution

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Plastic waste generation worldwide poses a severe environmental protection problem because some plastic waste products can take 500 years to decompose. According to scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa,  global plastic production has increased from 300 million metric tons to 360 million metric tons per year in the last five years, and over half of the produced plastic ends up as waste. Nowadays, many building material companies and start-ups are recycling plastic waste into construction materials to mitigate the adverse effects of environmental pollution. For instance,

• In June 2022, CRDC Global, a disruptive building materials company and PEDREGAL, launched a state-of-the-art factory in Costa Rica that is capable of converting difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into a value-added aggregate called "RESIN8". The recycling plant can process up to 90 tons of plastic waste per day at its full capacity. RESIN8 can take any type of plastic waste, including resins 1 to 7, as raw material without any limitations on type or quantity. In addition, this aggregate can be used in the construction industry for numerous applications such as pre-cast concrete, concrete blocks and pavers, mortars, poured-in-place concrete and hot mix asphalt.
• Conceptos Plásticos, a Colombia-based start-up, is recycling plastic and rubber into building blocks that can be used to assemble houses and schools for vulnerable people. The company empowers recyclers in Colombia and worldwide to collect hard-to-recycle polymers. Each variety of plastic can provide bricks and blocks with a certain quality, and the different plastic combinations will produce different products. These bricks possess superior properties such as thermo-acoustic, good strength, anti-seismic, easy-to-assemble, flame-resistant, and affordable. Conceptos Plásticos has collaborated with UNICEF to convert plastic garbage in côte d'Ivoire into modular, low-cost plastic bricks used for classrooms.
• Plastic Recycled, a US-based start-up, creates products with 100 percent plastic waste and provides sustainable solutions for the construction industry. They use non-recyclable plastic water bottles to make eco-bricks. Empty plastic water bottles are tightly packed with soft, non-recyclable plastics, and when it reaches 5 ounces, the company uses these eco-bricks for construction projects. They can be used as bricks, inside framing walls and to make furniture items. 
• Ecomak Recyclers, an Uganda-based start-up, aims to improve waste management by turning plastic waste into reusable construction materials. The company collects and recycles approximately 30 tons of plastic waste per month. Moreover, Ecomak Recyclers has developed an exclusion technology called organo-technology, which is energy saving and helps increase plastics' melting process while retaining their physical properties. Then the plastic is used to make bricks and blocks. These bricks are long-lasting, durable, have zero breakages, and are twice stronger than conventional bricks. Ecomak has many real estate and construction companies as its biggest customers as these bricks are 30 percent cheaper than the traditional bricks. With the massive growth rate, the company intends to capture markets in most of Uganda next year and the rest of East Africa in the next 2 to 3 years.
• Nelplast Eco Ghana is a Ghana-based company that turns plastic waste into pavement slabs and tiles. The company collects around 20 tons of plastic waste per day. After scaling, grinding, and washing this plastic waste, it is introduced into an extruder with three different heating zones to cover a wide range of melting point plastics. The resultant mixture is then put in a mold, pressed, and transformed into various products. The construction materials Nelplast produce have advantages over the traditional concrete, such as being moisture-free and recyclable after many years. Moreover, these construction products are 30 to 40 percent cheaper than traditional concrete products. Hence, most of the real estate and housebuilders are the company's biggest customers.
• ByFusion, a US-based start-up, has developed a technology that can compress discarded plastic waste into blocks used in construction. The company prefers an eco-friendly process called "Blocker" that uses steam and compression to convert plastic waste into construction blocks without using any chemicals. Another benefit of this process is feedstock plastics are not needed to be washed or pre-sorted, and all types of plastics can be fed to the system. Blocks formed by this process are known as "ByBlocks," which do not require adhesives or additional special labor force. ByBlocks are construction-grade materials applicable to sheds, fencing, walls, landscaping, and furniture. They do not crack or crumble and cause 41 percent fewer emissions than concrete products. 
• Recently, Dow Chemical Company collaborated with Reynolds Consumer Products and an innovative manufacturing company, ByFusion. The involved companies have collected hard-to-recycle materials from the Hefty EnergyBag Program to create building materials that can be used to develop infrastructures such as bus stops, park benches, and other outdoor structures. The Dow Business Impact Fund supported this project by providing funding through a grant program. 

In addition to building material companies, the governments of different countries are also taking initiatives to convert plastic waste into road construction projects. For instance,

• In June 2022, the state government of Tripura, an Indian state, has decided to construct roads measuring 50 KMs length in and around its capital city, Agartala, by using non-recyclable plastic waste. In the past, a 680-meter long road using plastic bituminous was constructed as a trial in Agartala under a smart city limited project. The road was constructed with a mixture of bitumen and plastic in the ratio of 40 and 60. With this initiative, more such roads will be constructed in the future to reuse plastic waste for public welfare projects. 
• Approximately 703 KMs of national highways have been constructed using plastic waste in India till 2021. In July 2021, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued guidelines to use plastic waste with hot mixes in coatings of service roads and national highways within 50 KM distance in highly populated urban areas.

As more and more construction start-ups are entering into the idea of recycling plastic waste into building materials used for construction projects is showing a positive influence on environmental protection. As these building materials possess superior properties compared to traditional concrete and are cost-effective in nature, more companies are interested in developing new technologies to process and recycle plastic waste into useful construction materials.

To know more and gain a deeper understanding of the global construction market, click here.