Tech & Sci
20:54, 11-Aug-2017
Building blocks: Belgian researchers create bricks and cement from landfill waste
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Researchers in Belgium have found a way to create bricks and cement from landfill waste in a new effort to protect the environment.
The project, called "New Mine", has received 4.5 million US dollars in funding from the European Union.
Researchers hope that one day the foundations of buildings in European cities could be built with bricks created from the waste of previous generations.
"The aim of the project is to take this waste out of the landfills and process it in order to recuperate the most out of it. To recover recyclable materials, to produce alternative fuels and of course to decrease the amount of waste that is being kept in these reservoirs that are still contaminating the environment," said Juan Carlos Hernandez, one of the researchers.
If they can prove that the so-called "mining" of landfill sites is economically viable, then more than 150,000 such sites across Europe could be the source of tomorrow's building materials.
They are currently testing the bricks in laboratory conditions to see if they can be used for industrial purposes.
Meanwhile, researchers are working in with a project at Leuven University which is looking at extracting minerals and critical metals from industrial waste that can be used in green energy production hardware such as wind turbines and solar panels.
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