ABSTRACT

The main objective of this research work is to develop an efficient way to

effectively utilize the waste plastic like PET which is a great threat for the
sustainment of ecological balance and to reduce the plastic waste which
is increasing day by day. Plastic waste is increasing day by day becomes
eyesore and in turn pollutes the environment, especially in high
mountains, villages where no garbage collection system exists. A large
number of plastics is being brought in the region which are discarded and
burnt in air. Hence, these plastic wastes must to be effectively utilized.
The aim of the project is to replace cement with plastic waste and use it
with M-sand and Fly ash to reduce the cost; when compared to that of
the conventional Soil Bricks. Hence the project will be helpful in reducing
plastic waste in a useful way.
Plastic waste is a non -biodegradable waste i.e. which cannot be
decomposed by micro-organisms. The percentage of plastics waste is
increasing rapidly. It is estimated that the plastic waste will be doubled
after a decade as we use hundred grades of plastic in daily life. AS a civil
engineer we have to innovate something new related to this which is
boom for civil engineering. So, here we try to do something innovative as
Construction Materials (Plastic Sand Bricks).
Utilizing municipal plastic waste (MPW) as construction materials
especially in production of bricks is one of a promising step towards a
sustainable resources and waste management. Plastic waste can
substitute either partially or completely one or more of the materials in
bricks production. Further research based on recent research and a
better understanding in utilization of plastic waste in bricks is needed to
produce a high durability and quality of bricks as well as to achieve the
optimum balance in all aspects especially in terms of cost and
functionality.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Objective
4. Scope
5. Material
5.1 Waste plastic
5.2 M- Sand
5.3 Fly ash
6. Methodology
6.1 Collection of materials
6.2 Batching
6.3 Melting
6.4 Mixing
6.5 Moulding
6.6 Curing
7. Tests
7.1 Absorption test
7.2 Crushing or Compressive strength test
7.3 Hardness test
7.4 Shape and size test
7.5 Soundness test
7.6 Structure of bricks
8.Results
9.Conclusion
10.Future work
11.Refrences

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 1. INTRODUCTION
Plastic waste is a major problem all over the world and its side effects are
felt throughout the universe. The amount of damage it does is
irreplaceable. Waste in its various forms is increasing in landfills. Due to
effects that plastic has on human life, environmentalists are persistently
working to get a solution to the problem of plastic disposal. They are
focusing on day-to-day human practices which can help to reduce the
disposal problem. Disposal of waste materials including waste plastic
bags has become a serious problem. Amount of waste plastic bags being
accumulated in 21st century has created big challenges for their disposal.
The waste plastics in house hold is in a large quantity and increasing with
time due to the increase in population. In each country waste
consumption is different, since it is unaffected by socioeconomic
characteristics and waste management programs, but the level of plastics
in waste consumption is high. In order to overcome this issue, we have
to use it in effective way. This project is about recycling waste plastics into
blocks along with M-sand and quarry dust and to study their
characteristics. Among different waste fractions, plastic waste deserves
special attention on account non-eco-friendly property which is creating
a lot of problems in the environment. In India approximately about 40
million tons of solid waste is produced annually. This is increasing at a
rate of 1.5 to 2% every year. Plastics constitute 12.3% of total waste
produced. The plastic waste cannot be disposed of by discarding or
burning, as they produce unrestrained fire or contaminate the soil and
vegetation. M-sand is alternative to river sand and quarry dust is also a
waste produced during crushing of rocks in quarry and it also causing a
problem in term of disposal.
Plastic is a new engineering material in which researchers take more
interest to invest their time and money because it has a wide scope to

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enhance the usage of plastic in different work. The properties of plastic
are very unique and it can mix with every kind of material. Plastic is a
composition of synthetic and semi synthetic organic compounds. They
are malleable and ductile and remould into any solid substance.
Plastic is used in various objects which we use in our daily life like
polythene, plastic cups, furniture, bags, packaging of food and other
accessories, drinking containers, bottles, frames, basins etc. We need to
use better advance techniques and methods to dispose plastic waste
properly, otherwise, the time is not too far away where we see it as a big
challenge for us to dispose it.
Researchers suggest that if plastic isn’t disposed of soon, it can sustain
for 4500 years without degradation. Now, these days the rate of plastic
use keeps increasing. So the collection of plastic waste increasing at a
rapid speed. The usage of plastic can’t be banned, but we can reuse it in
many ways. Plastic can be reused in various sectors like marketing,
manufacturing, transportation etc. In construction sector, we can use the
plastic waste on a very large scale after recycling it, which means the
problem of plastic waste can be removed for a long time period. It seems
to be more practicable and efficient method to solve this problem. In
construction field, many types of bricks and tiles are used like - clay
bricks, concrete bricks, fly ash bricks, foam bricks. In this project we try
to use plastic-based bricks which has better characteristics than any
other type of bricks. Plastic sand bricks are cheaper than normal bricks.
People can easily afford these types of bricks.

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 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. “Fabrication and testing of Plastic sand bricks” by S S Chauhan,
Bhusan Kumar, Prem Shankar Singh, Abuzaid Khan, Hrithik Goyal,
Shivank Goyal (2019): - They mixed the river sand and the PET plastic
(molten form) in the ratio of 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 for mould size of
(230*100*75) mm for which they found maximum compressive
strength on the ratio of 1:2 mixture for the same size of the bricks. The
water absorption of these bricks was observed less than 5% that is less
than conventional clay bricks i.e. 15-20%. However, they failed in
maintaining fire resistance property of these bricks.
2. “Utilization of plastic waste in manufacturing of plastic sand
bricks.” By Arvind Singhal, Dr. Om Prakash Netula (2018):- They used
the mixture of plastic and stone dust in the molten form in the ratio of
3:7 in standard brick mould for which stone dust was sieved through
4.75 mm using sieve analysis and conducted test on water absorption
to be found as 0%. Compressive strength of plastic sand bricks is 5.6
N/mm2 at the compressive load of 96 KN.
3. “Plastic in Brick Application.” By Siti Nabilah Amir & Nur Zulaikha
Yusof (2018):- The studies showed the possibility of using plastic as
binder with the aid of catalyst through depolymerization of PET to
replace cement. It was observed that a significant decrease in
compressive strength is observed for more than 50% replacement of
binder with PET waste. With increased amount of PET, the softening
point of the bricks produced was also increased. They used the
different size of moulds like (150*150*150) mm, (200*100*100) mm
etc.
4. “Study of plastic dust brick made from waste plastic” by Ronak
Shah, Himanshu Garg, Parth Gandhi, Rashmi Patil, Anand Daftardar
(2017):- They used plastic dust as the main component of waste

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product which is the by – product of many industrial products such as
PVC pipes and they have heated plastic dust at 220℃. The final
product from plastic dust was tested for the compressive strength and
it was observed as 6.66 N/mm2 which is higher than conventional
bricks (3-5 N/mm^2).
5. Muyen Z, Barna TN, Hoque MN (2016) Strength properties of
plastic bottle bricks and their suitability as construction materials in
Bangladesh. Progressive Agriculture 27(3): 362-368.
6. Hiremath PM, Shetty S (2014) Utilization of waste plastic in
manufacturing of plastic-soil bricks. International Journal of
Technology Enhancement and Emerging Engineering Research 2(4):
2347-4289

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 3. OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the project is to develop an efficient way to
effectively utilize the waste product which is great threat for ecological
balance. Plastic has numerous uses and its safe disposal pose a serious
problem. The main aim is to utilize the plastic in manufacturing of bricks
should not be compromised. Using plastic as an ingredient should not
reduce the strength and quality of the bricks. The brick should give desire
test result so that sustainable use along with functional requirements
gets fulfilled.
➢ To reduce the consumption of natural resources such as clay for the
manufacturing of bricks.
➢ To minimize and reuse generation of plastic on the land and water
to avoid land and water degradation and consequent pollution
hazard.
➢ To reduce the dumping area of waste plastics.
➢ To produce cost-effective materials which a common person can
afford easily.
➢ To compare strength of plastic bricks with normal clay bricks.
➢ To vary the percentage of plastic in bricks to determine the strength
performance.
➢ Cost comparison in between plastic bricks and normal clay bricks.

4. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

➢ The project will enhance environmental conditions by reducing
plastics.
➢ Cost and time reduction after using these plastic bricks.
➢ Establishing the industries.
➢ When plastic used for these construction the structures will be
more economics and it have enough strength, durability.

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 5. MATERIAL
5.1 WASTE PLASTIC: -
Plastic is any synthetic or semi synthetic organic polymer. In other
words, while other elements may be present, plastic always include
carbon and hydrogen. While plastic may be made from just about any
organic polymer. Most industrial plastic is made from petrochemical.
Thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers are the two types of plastic.
The name “plastic” refers to the property of plasticity, which is ability to
define without breaking.
Plastic is classified into two groups: one is recyclable (94% of the overall
plastic generation in India is thermoplastics), while the other is
nonrecyclable (6% of the overall generation in India is thermoset plastic).
It is to be found that 94% of overall recyclable plastic includes 67% HDPE
and LDPE, 10% PP, 9% PET, and 4% each of PVC and PS. The remaining 6%
of the thermoset group is followed by sheet molded composite, fiber-
reinforced plastic, and multilayered and expanded polystyrene. The
annual plastic consumption is 5 million tonnes/year in 2005, which rose
to 8 million tonnes/year in 2008, and is estimated to be further increased
to 24 million tonnes/year by 2020. According to the government of India,
the per capita consumption in India in 2022 would increase to 20 kg
annually. A study published in 2015, according to the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB), suggests that around 1.28 million tonnes of plastic
is generated each year in India out of which 0.77 million tonnes of plastic
is recycled and 0.51 million tonnes of plastic remains uncollected or
littered. According to the report of CPCB for the years 2018-2019, the
total waste generation in India is about 9.46 million tonnes each year.

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 Types of Waste Plastic
Waste plastics Available as
Poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) Drinking water bottle, juice and
liquor bottles
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Carry bags, bottle caps, house hold
articles etc.
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Milk pouches, sacks carry bags, bin
linings, cosmetics and detergent
bottles.
Poly propylene (PP) Bottle caps and closures, wrappers
of detergents, biscuit etc.
Urea formaldehyde Electrical fitting handles and Knobs
Polyester resin Casting, bonding fibers (glass,
Kevlar, carbon fiber)

Properties of waste plastic (PET)

I. Specific Gravity :- 1.3-1.4
II. Density :- 1350-1380 kg/m^3
III. Melting point :- 250-270 degree celcius
IV. E-Modulus(GPa) :- 2.1-2.2
V. Yield stress(MPa):-50-60
VI. Quiescent Crystallization time(min.):- 2-3
VII. Water Absorption(Immersion 24 hrs.):- 0.10%
VIII. Coefficient of Friction :- 0.25

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5.2 M- SAND :-
Manufacturing sand is an alternative for river sand. Due to fast
growing construction industry the demand for sand has
increased tremendously, causing deficiency of suitable rivers and
in most part of the world.
Due to the depletion of good quality river sand for the use of
construction, the use of manufactures and has been increased.
Manufacturing sand(M-Sand) is a substitute of river sand for
concrete construction. Manufacture exact is produced from hard
granite stone by crushing.
The crushed sand is of cubical shape with grounded edges,
washed and graded to as construction material. The size of
manufactured sand is less than 4.75.

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5.3 FLY ASH :-
Fly ash is a finally divided by product resulting from the
combustion of coal in power plants. It contains large amounts
of silica, alumina and small amount of unburned carbon, which
pollutes environment. It is grey in colour and alkaline in nature.
The particle size ranges between 1 to 100 microns. Desh Pacific
gravity of FA lies between 1.9 and 2.8.The surface area is
typically 300 to 500 square metre per kg, although some FA can
have a surface area as high as 700 square metre per kg. The
mass per unit volume including air between particles can vary
from 540 to 860 kg per cubic metre.

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Classification of Fly Ash
➢ Two classes of fly as are defined by ASTM C618
• Class F fly ash
• Class C fly ash
➢ This classification is based on the chemical composition of
FA i.e. the sum of silica, alumina and iron oxide
percentages in the FA, being
• Minimum of 70% for a class F
• Minimum 50% for class C

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 6. METHODOLOGY

Collection
of materials Batching Melting

Curing Moulding Mixing

6.1 Collection of materials :- The plastic material should be

collected from the factories waste and hospital waste and
industries waste and also food packages and plastic bottle this
will come under the LDPE plastic type.

6.2 Batching :- The plastic collected from nearby garbage was

batched. To ensure there was no water content in the sample
taken after classifying the types of plastic, water in the collected
material was removed through oven drying at a temperature
ranging from 20 C to 25 C, and any other garbage was removed
through hand segregation. The components for the preparation
of the plastic sand bricks were then measured.

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6.3 Melting:- Burning of waste plastic After completion
batching the plastic waste was taken for burning in which the
plastic bags are drop one by one into the container and allowed
to melt. These would be done in closed vessel because to
prevent the toxic gases released into atmosphere. These will be
at the temperature of 120-150 degrees centigrade.

6.4 Mixing:- Mixing of materials is essential for the production

of uniform strength for brick. The mixing has to be ensuring that
the mass becomes homogeneous, uniform in color and
consistency. Generally, there are two types of mixing, Hand
mixing and mechanical mixing. In this project, we adopted hand
mixing. Until the entire plastic content required for making
plastic brick of one mix proportion is added into it. Then these
plastic liquids thoroughly mixed by using trowel before it
hardens. The mixture has very short setting bags are turned to
molten state; the M-Sand is added to it. The sand added is
mixed time. Hence mixing process should not consume more
time.

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6.5 Moulding:- Moulding After completion of proper mixing we
place mix into required mould. In these projects we use the
normal brick sizes (19x9x9 cm). After 2 days remove the brick
from the mould and then done curing. The test specimens after
moulding were allowed to dry for a period of 24 hours.
The specimens were kept in curing tank and allowed to cure for
a period of 28 days.

6.6 Curing:- Curing The test specimens after moulding were

allowed to dry for a period of 24 hours. The specimens were
kept in curing tank and allowed to cure for a period of 28 days.

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 7. Tests of Bricks
A wide array of tests is conducted on bricks to ascertain their
quality for the purpose of construction. Brick testing is carried
out in the laboratory as well as at the construction site.
Bricks are arguably one of the oldest and most vital
construction materials due to their strength, reliability, and
durability.
The tests that are needed to determine the suitability of bricks
for construction work are discussed below.

7.1 Absorption test:-

This test is conducted on bricks to know the total amount of
moisture that is absorbed by the brick under extreme
conditions. During this test, a dry brick is taken and weighed.
Post weighing, the brick is placed in water for 24 hours. After
this, the wet brick is weighed. The difference in the weight of
the dry brick and the wet brick is calculated which gives the
amount of water absorption. For a high-quality brick, the
amount of water absorption must not exceed 20% of the dry
brick weight.

7.2 Crushing or compressive strength test:-

The crushing strength is determined by placing a brick in a
compression testing machine that applies pressure on the brick

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until it breaks. The pressure at which the brick shatters should
exceed a minimum of 3.50 N/mm2. Any value lower than that
indicates that the brick is not suitable for construction.

7.3 Hardness test:-

The ideal brick must be able to resist any scratches induced by
sharp objects. So, for this specific test, a sharp tool or fingernail
is used to create scratches on bricks. If there are no impressions
of any scratches, then the brick is considered to be a hard brick.

7.4 Shape and size test

All bricks used for the purpose of construction must be of
identical size. When it comes to shape, each brick should be
rectangular with distinct, sharp edges. To carry out this test, 20
bricks are selected randomly and stacked along their
dimensions for comparison. If all bricks are of the same size,
then they are suitable for construction activity.

7.5 Soundness test

This is another way of testing bricks. This test demonstrates the
nature of bricks during sudden impact. To perform this test, two
bricks are chosen randomly and struck against each other.

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The bricks should not crack or break, and the sound that is
produced must be a clear, bell-ringing sound.

7.6 Structure of bricks

To successfully determine a brick’s structure, one brick is

randomly picked from a group and is broken. Close attention is
paid to the inner portion of the brick. The brick must be smooth
and free from lumps.

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19
20
Chapter 5

RESULTS

5.1 Comparison of plastic bricks vs normal brick

Table 5.1: Comparison of plastic bricks vs normal brick

S.No ITEM OF
DESCRIPTION PLASTIC BRICK NORMAL BRICK
1 WATER
ABSORTION 1.26 % 7.71 %
MetalicRinging
2 SOUDNESS TEST MetalicRinging sound
sound
EFFLORESCENCE
3 ZERO ZERO
TEST
COMPRESSIVE
4 6.13 Mpa 4.72 Mpa
TEST

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 9. Conclusion
• Plastic sand block made using plastic, M-sand and Fly ash
has shown better results.
• Plastic sand block is found to have more strength than the
normal concrete block.
• This method is suitable in countries where there is a
problem of plastic disposal.
• Removal of waste plastic products thus abolishing land
requirement problem for dumping plastic
• By use of plastic sand blocks, the water absorption is highly
reduced.
• Natural resources consumed for manufacturing Plastic sand
block is very less compared to it counterparts.
• Plastic sand block possesses more advantages which include
resource efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gases and
reducing the problem of disposal of plastic.
• The final end product i.e., plastic sand block has higher
strength than fly ash bricks &clay bricks.
• Manufacturing cost is reduced further as we are replacing
river sand with M-sand and Fly ash

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 10. Future work

The innovative recycled brick solution addresses the challenges

of plastic pollution and affordable housing. While plastic waste
wreaks havoc on the oceans and the construction industry
contributes significantly to carbon emissions, this brick offers a
cost-effective and ecologically sustainable alternative.
According to one of the most recent scientific studies, plastic
bricks are very affordable compared to other materials, they
delay the disposal or incineration of plastic for a while (which is
undoubtedly an environmental benefit as it extends the life of
these materials) and they need very little water during .
Plastic pollution is a huge problem. Every minute a truckload of
trash enters the ocean and it is estimated that 90% of this waste
comes from low-income countries.
While at the same time 38% of the worlds carbon emissions
come from the construction industry. With popular building
materials such as concrete being carbon-intensive. It also leads
to the destruction of the ocean floor through dredging for sand,
and the destruction of the landscape to acquire more stone.

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 11.Refrences
1. Dinesh S; Dinesh A, and Kumbhakar K, “Utilization of Waste
Plastic in Manufacturing of Bricks and Paver Blocks” International
Journal of Applied Engineering Research, Vol.2 (4), pp. 364-368.

2. An experimental study on bricks manufactured using m-sand,

saw dust and recycled plastic. International Journal of Advanced
Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET) Volume 10,
Issue 4, July-August 2019, pp. 171-178, Article ID:
IJARET_10_04_021.

3. The Use of Waste Plastic in the Manufacture of Bricks.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology
(IRJET). Volume: 07 Issue: 04 Apr 2020

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