Recycled waste bricks for building green houses

Although it may seem like it, it is not a life-size LEGO-type construction, but a true alternative to conventional bricks for the construction of ecological houses. Basically it is about building walls with waste , an idea that may seem a bit crazy, but that stops being when Lewis’s project is known.

For about ten years, this New Zealander has not stopped fighting to carry out his project, consisting of the manufacture of the machine and, of course, also seeing what is the best way of collecting waste to make ecological bricks after recycling on said machine.

The machine has been baptized as ” Byfusion ” and it is enough and left over by itself to transform the waste into brick by chopping and compacting it, adopting the form of brick.

A machine that can recycle all types of plastic following a series of steps, to finally compress the plastic paste and thus produce a 10 kilogram brick.

The machine manages to create a brick every 40 seconds, that is, 150 blocks per hour that, as can be seen in the video, are fitted through metal guides in which they can be easily crimped to build walls.

The advantage of these bricks of plastic is that they provide good heat insulation and sound also be particularly economic, in addition to the environmental benefits targeted.

On the other hand, durability might not be a problem, since being made of plastic they take decades and even hundreds of years to degrade. Its duration when building houses could be similar to that of conventional bricks or, in any case, the construction would be standing for many generations.

As a drawback, the problem is none other than basing its raw material on a product that should be destined to disappear. This is not the case yet, it is more than evident, and in fact the problem of plastic waste is a real environmental drama, but a low-carbon society must find ecological alternatives.

While they are, yes, this system is a real gem, especially considering that no matter how much the use of plastic is reduced , both today and in the medium and long term we will find plastic everywhere.

However, in ideal terms, to which we must tend, it must be recognized that it would be wonderful if this machine were not necessary because, simply, plastic would have ceased to be an environmental problem due to its lesser use.

On the other hand, aesthetics can be a problem for home construction . Everything goes to taste, it is true, and fashions can be unexpected and even an aesthetic like this be a trend, but it must be recognized that the result does not agree with conventional aesthetics.

Perhaps that is why it is difficult to imagine building a house with these bricks . Or maybe not, because in turn the market devours the new proposals, while aesthetics may be secondary to other values ​​such as the need for a home at an affordable price and / or environmental care.

At the origin of the idea we find the reason for this peculiar aesthetic. According to Peter Lewis, the project arose from the need that it detected at an environmental level, with the intention of finding a practical use in needs other than the construction of a house.

Basically, he thought about its use for the construction of walls that would allow separate agricultural plots, garages. Likewise, he considered the possibility that they were used to help in emergency situations.

From rebuilding places that have suffered the onslaught of the forces of nature such as earthquakes, storms or the like to the construction of temporary shelters that help provide a roof for the survivors.

Above all, it would be of great help in places where there is little wood or other materials available for the reconstruction of houses, neighborhoods or entire towns. Nothing prevents, of course, that it can be used for other purposes, without the need for any urgency.

It is an idea with a double environmental interest . On the one hand, the contamination of plastic waste in the world is a tremendous problem, which may well be classified as an environmental catastrophe, and on the other hand we avoid the use of conventional construction materials, which are equally polluting.

Both from the point of view of pollution and impact on the environment as well as its carbon footprint. Not surprisingly, construction accounts for a good part of the disastrous greenhouse gas emissions .

The project is succeeding thanks to a $ 20,000 grant from the New Zealand government, and is starting work in Dunedin, his city, located on the Otago Bay. Finally, its virality is taking it to the four corners of the planet.

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