New brick successfully tested

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 15: A team led by Ajay Kalamdhad from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati, has successfully tested the use of degraded municipal solid waste (MSW) to fabricate bricks. The degraded MSW for the purpose has been collected from Boragaon landfill site, Guwahati. The bricks obtained by mixing 20% degraded MSW with soil were found 20% lighter. Test results confirmed that fired bricks with 20 % of degraded MSW are safe for use and can be recycled after service life. Fired bricks have long been used for the construction of buildings because of easy availability of the raw material. However, brick making consumes a significant quantity of fertile agricultural soil and much of it comes at an expense of loss of fertile soil and land degradation.