Recycled Wood-Geopolymer Concrete Blocks as Sustainable Material

Buildings have a large urban footprint, are one of the greatest consumers of resources and raw materialsMaterials, and are responsible for 40% of the global energy usage and contribute to as much as 33% of the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. WasteWaste wood, ground granulated blast furnace slagSlag, and fly ash are an important source of wasteWaste that can be recycled to make wood-geopolymer concrete compositeComposites building materialBuilding material helping to better achieve a circular economy. The wood-geopolymer compositeComposites blocks have added properties enabling thermal, acoustic, and humidity regulation within buildings that reduce energy consumption. This study has shown that recyclingRecycling partially decontaminated copperCopper-chrome-arsenic (CCA) treated wasteWaste timberTimber may have slightly better mechanical propertiesMechanical properties than wasteWaste virgin timberTimber. Different amounts of wood in the wood-geopolymer compositesComposites can be used for load and non-load-bearing applications. The study has also shown that the use of less than 40% by weight of partially decontaminated CCA-treated timberTimber in the wood-geopolymer compositeComposites blocks is able to meet the 5 mg/litre leachate limit for a wide variety of environmental leachate tests.