Converting Plastic Waste into Building Materials: Poly Bricks

Plastic is a material that cannot biodegrade and is hazardous for the environment since it takes thousands of years to break down. Plastic remains cause acute health issues through land and water pollution. Municipal solid waste contains a considerable quantity of plastic waste in the form of plastic carry bags, sachets, bottles, and primary packaging materials. Recycling, reusing, or converting plastic waste into value-added products has been a topic of attention in the present day in both urban and rural places. One of the sustainable and practical solutions for managing plastic waste is to convert it into plastic bricks that can be applied as building materials. These plastic bricks are lightweight and have higher strength than standard bricks. But, manufacturing pure plastic bricks is tedious, and a single brick requires large amounts of waste plastic. Thus, an economical way of utilizing plastic waste is to convert it into composite material consisting of cement brick and plastic, ‘Poly Brick.’ Other than replacing conventional building materials, such as bricks, tiles, concrete blocks, etc., with pure plastic bricks, these composite materials show enhanced properties and renewed strength. Poly Bricks provide the consumer with various benefits, in extension to being eco-friendly. Studies on poly bricks showed enhanced properties such as porosity, compressive strength, tensile strength, chemical reactivity, and durability compared to a standard brick. Many researchers have carried out active research to address the problem of plastic waste by processing it into Poly Bricks. Thus, poly bricks are an excellent alternative to clay bricks, minimizing plastic waste. This chapter discusses the effects of plastic waste, methods for converting the plastic waste into poly bricks, the testing methods, and the comparison of properties of poly bricks with conventional building materials, thus concluding how efficiently the plastic waste converts into value-added products.