Creating Sustainable Bricks from Recycled Materials to Optimize Urban Viability and Accessibility

Overview

The use of waste materials in concrete may increase viability for affordable housing in urban settings. Traditional concrete bricks are expensive and heavy to transport. Using waste materials like plastic and rubber may create opportunities to both improve the environment and reduce the cost of construction materials. Varying proportions of recycled plastic and rubber (0%, 15% or 30%) were used to create bricks that were then tested for mass, heat conductivity, sound dampening, water absorption and compressive strength versus control concrete bricks made with no recycled components. Mass for bricks containing plastic or rubber was lower than traditional concrete bricks. Differences in thermal conductivity and sound dampening were minimal. Water absorption was lowest for the 15% plastic 15% rubber (15P,15R) bricks. Unexpectedly, the 15P,15R bricks showed greater compressive strength than traditional bricks, as did 0P,15R. These results suggest 15P,15R composite bricks may be effective alternatives to traditional bricks.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Applied Mechanics (Senior Division) · Entry S-02-28

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Engineering projects
• CSEF Engineering projects
• Every CSEF 2026 project