14 DAY TRIAL // An international team of scientists claims to have come up with an innovative – and fairly wacky, some might want to add – way to deal with old toilets, bathtubs, basins and the like, instead of just disposing of them and having them end up in landfills.
Thus, these researchers say that it is possible to use toilets, bathtubs and other ceramic waste that folks no longer have any use for, and that would otherwise be thrown away to make cement.
What's more, they claim that, according to evidence at hand, the cement obtained in this manner might even be stronger and more durable than the one currently used in constructions.
Inhabitat informs that, in order to create their eco-friendly ceramic waste-based cement, English, Spanish and Brazilian specialists started by grinding up whatever old ceramics they managed to get their hands on.
The resulting dust was then mixed with water and with a cocktail of chemical compounds referred to as an activator solution. According to the researchers, the activator solution that they toyed with during their experiment used sodium hydroxide or sodium silicate.
After the ground up ceramics waste is mixed with water and the activator solution, all one needs to do is pour the resulting concoction into a mold of one's choice, and expose it to intense heat. This causes the mixture to harden and form shapes similar to those one would obtain from regular cement.
Presently, the cement industry is a major contributor to climate change and global warming. This is because significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions are produced while making said constructions material, specialists explain.
Hence, turning to old toilets, bathtubs and the like to obtain cement has the potential to help reduce environmental pollution and keep our planet's atmosphere free of at least some harmful chemical compounds. Besides, this technology would also help reduce waste.
Interestingly enough, the English, Spanish, and Brazilian scientists who worked on this project want to make their ceramic waste-based cement even more environmentally friendly by replacing the activator solution with rice husk ash, i.e. ash obtained by burning the hard protecting coverings of grains of rice.
The researchers say that, should they succeed in their endeavor, this would pave the way to an eco-friendly cement that is manufactured by processing recycled materials alone. The trouble is that, despite the fact that they have been experimenting with the use of rice husk ash instead of an activator solution for some time now, the specialists have not yet obtained any conclusive results.