Recycling waste into building materials

As the plight of the earth continues to come to light, environmental sustainability is becoming a hot topic on everyone’s lips, the public and big corporations alike.

People are ditching single-use plastic bags and cups for reusable ones, and increasingly looking at ways to reuse or recycle waste instead of adding to the landfill at every opportunity.

In the construction industry, university researchers and building experts are coming up with ways to convert all kinds of waste into building materials. There is the concrete made from dialysis waste and an ambitious project that converts carbon dioxide into carbonates that could be used in building products.

Recently, researchers at UNSW in Sydney have come up with a way to turn old clothing and textiles into construction material such as flat panels.

The high-end composite products can have a wood veneer look or a ceramic-style finish and have been lab tested for qualities such as fire and water resistance; flexibility; acoustic and load-bearing capabilities.

“It could be said that consumers and the fashion industry have a lot to answer for, given that clothing is now one of the biggest consumer waste streams, with 92 million tonnes estimated to be thrown out a year globally,” said lead researcher and Director of UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT), Professor Veena Sahajwalla.

“The clothing and textiles industry is the second most polluting sector in the world, accounting for 10 per cent of the world's total carbon emissions.”

She said with an estimated global population growth from 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050, the earth’s resources need to be preserved and re-used rather than put in landfill or incinerated.

“There is much that can be done right now given that scientifically-developed, proven methods are currently available through our green microfactory technology,” Sahajwalla said.

The UNSW’s microfactory is a world first facility launched in April 2018 that transforms components of discarded electronic items such as mobile phones, laptops and printers into metal alloys, carbon and 3D printer filament.

UNSW’s textile project follows a separate but related research exercise that converted used glass into high-quality ceramics suitable for benchtops and tiles in kitchens and bathrooms that can come in all sort of sizes, colours and finishes.

“Rather than export our rubbish overseas and to create more land fill, green microfactory technology has the potential to enable small- and large-scale creation of newly manufactured products instead,” Sahajwalla said.

While the textile building panels did exceptional well in the lab tests, further testing is required before any formal assessments against construction regulations is conducted.