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Green/Eco Friendly Brick Options

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Owen Geiger

Why do we
need
greener
options for
making
bricks?
Here’s a
quote from
IDSN MOW
“1.3 trillion
bricks are
manufactur
ed on earth
each year,
and at least
10% of
which are
made in
coal-fired
ovens, on a
Green bricks are environmentally friendly alternative to concrete and high-fired clay bricks.
whole
releasing
800 million tons of CO2 annually.” In addition, clay bricks often destroy valuable topsoil. We need affordable,
locally made, low tech eco bricks for the masses. Here is a list of leading eco-friendly green bricks.

Hempcrete bricks: An environmentally friendly alternative to concrete, ‘hempcrete’ is made of hemp, lime and
water. The material is eco-friendly and carbon negative due to the amount of carbon dioxide stored during the
growing and harvesting of the hemp. Hempcrete itself is also a carbon sink, with further carbon dioxide absorbed
as the lime-based binder petrifies the hemp shiv over time. (See photo above.)
See more: Sourceable.net

Recycled glass brick: BEEcycle is currently researching a

solution for glass waste by breaking down glass bottles into
sand which is then used to create eco-bricks for paving and
construction. The GS100 machine is designed to turn glass
waste into sand grade sizes. The glass is then used to
replace normal sand in brick maing rendering the eco-bricks
more eco-friendly with over 70% of it being waste material.
At the same time, the eco-brick looks, feels and functionality
is exactly the same as conventional bricks.
See more at BEEcycle

Microbial-induced eco bricks: Ginger Krieg Dosier has won

the Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize for her design
of “green” bricks using sand, common bacteria, calcium
Glass waste eco bricks by Beecycle chloride, and urea (compound found in urine), using a
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process called microbial-induced calcite precipitation.

See more at IDSN MOW
Update: Dosier is the winner of the 2013 Postcode Lottery Green Challenge. It sounds like her team is
making good progress.

Timbercrete ‘sandstone’ brick: Being half the weight of clay or concrete, bricklayers can easily lay this sandstone
brick with one hand yet they are laying three brick sizes in one, the dimensions being exactly one and a half
times the length and two times the height of a standard clay brick also means it will take a third of the time and
third of the mortar which means a third of the cost of labour to install. It looks phenomenal, you can nail it like
timber, it has loadbearing support for double brick construction and has the highest fire rating that a masonry
product can achieve.
See more at Timbercrete

Save Water Brick: The Save Water Brick design by Jin-young Yoon and Jeongwoong Kwon is comprised of a
mixture of recycled plastic bottles and dried, rotting leaves molded into a traditional brick shape.
See more at: Sourceable.net

Recycled newspaper bricks: Two researchers from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in India
(VNIT) have developed eco-friendly, energy efficient bricks made from recycled newspaper. Professors Rahul
Ralegaonkar and Sachin Mandavgane hatched the idea to create these bricks after a trip to local paper mill two
years ago. They learned at that 15% of newspaper cannot be recycled and goes to waste. This, combined with
the fact that India suffers from a brick shortage of about 30%, inspired them to manufacture bricks from the paper
mill waste.
See more at Green Buildings.com

Green Brick from CalStar: CalStar Products has introduced fly ash brick and fly ash paver masonry for the green
building market. These products contain 40% post-industrial recycled material, use 90% less energy to
manufacture and generate 90% less CO2 than traditional fired clay brick and pavers. They are available in eight
colors and have been designed to be price competitive with traditional products of equivalent quality.
See more at Materialicious.com

Green Leaf Brick: 100% recycled scrap. Green Leaf Brick are not recycled brick, but are quality, newly
manufactured red , burgundy, and brown brick made from select materials that are rescued from landfills, open
pit mining byproducts, and plant refuse. No new lands are mined to secure materials for use in the manufacturing
of Green Leaf Brick. Included in these carefully selected materials are processed sewage wastes, recycled iron
oxides, recycled glass, mineral tailings, and other virgin ceramic scrap. All of the materials used in Green Leaf
Brick can be classified as post consumer or post industrial (pre consumer).
See more at Green Leaf Brick.com

Modular bricks made from stone dust: The Eco-Friendly Modular Bricks produced by Decolores use abrasive
mud obtained from the processing of ornamental stones as raw material.
See more at Decolores

Related:
Rice Hull Ash Bricks
Lime Stabilized Adobe Bricks
Recycled Brick Flooring
Low-fired Brick
Unusual Compressed Earth Blocks
Bricks Made from Fly Ash

Posted in General Tagged affordable, eco brick, ecofriendly, green brick, green building, natural building,
sustainable permalink [http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/greeneco-friendly-brick-options/]

Comments
Green/Eco Friendly Brick Options — 4 Comments

Saifuddin Ahmed
on October 29, 2016 at 2:06 PM said:

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Dear Sir
It is so interesting to me and I like to have more information on it .
please provide more and more information so that I can work on it
Regards.
Saifuddin Ahmed
Bangladesh.

Richard Taylor
on August 5, 2014 at 4:30 AM said:

Although there are many options you have mentioned but I personally liked the idea of developing Eco friendly
bricks with waste newspaper. Haven’t heard about such thing in building materials sector before. Hope they are
as good as other bricks in performance.

Morgan
on August 1, 2014 at 8:04 PM said:

Thanks for sharing this, Owen. Bricks made in a cinva ram are another good option and can be totally made
from clay rich soil on site.

Owen Geiger
on August 1, 2014 at 9:37 PM said:

For the most part this is a list of bricks. I’ve intentionally left out CEBs or earth blocks because they’re bigger
and heavier.

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