Converting Plastic Waste Into Construction Materials

The Centre for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC) has been working on the creation of building materials from plastic waste. The plastic is finely shredded, and then added to a mixture of concrete. The bricks created by this process are lighter, code-compliant, certified, and usable in all of the same building projects. The CRDC has established itself in Costa Rica, and is looking to expand to Capetown, South Africa, due to the stream of plastic waste and the need for housing materials.

Key Takeaways:

Year over year manufactures and consumers produce over three hundred million tons of plastic waste
A combined mixture of plastic and minerals are being produced to create synthetic brick materials
The bricks produced are strong enough for house construction

“Our standard CMU concrete block meets or exceeds all ASTM strength and fire requirements. They are recognized as better and more resilient blocks and therefore can be used in any code-compliant building project.”