Smart trash chutes8/17/2023 ![]() Structural components such as columns and beams therefore needed a smaller proportion of shredded nappies than did architectural elements, such as walls and concrete blocks. The more nappy waste in the concrete, the lower the compressive strength. From these measurements, Zuraida and her colleagues calculated the maximum proportion of nappy waste that could match the needs of building components. The team tested different mixes, replacing up to 40% of the sand in the concrete.Īfter a month of curing, the samples were pressure-tested to determine the breaking point of the composite material. After the nappies were washed, dried and shredded, the resulting material was combined with cement, sand, gravel and water. Initially, the researchers sourced the nappies locally - Zuraida has a toddler of her own. With funding from a Jakarta-based waste-management company called Awina, Zuraida set out to determine how much sand could be swapped for shredded nappies to create useful concrete and mortar. Single-use nappies are typically made from wood pulp, cotton and super-absorbent polymers, small amounts of which have been shown to improve the mechanical properties of concrete. It’s challenging, so we thought that this would be a part of our contribution to recycling this waste.” “With the growth of the population, the diaper waste will also grow. “It’s all about the resource availability,” says Zuraida. Although population numbers in wealthy countries often plateau and decline, those in Indonesia and other low- and middle-income countries will continue growing - leading to more babies, more nappies and more demand for low-cost housing. Siswanti Zuraida, a civil engineer at the University of Kitakyushu, began the project while lecturing at the Bandung Science Technology Institute near Jakarta. The nappy-infused concrete was used to build a small house in Indonesia, to demonstrate how this type of waste could be diverted from landfills to build more affordable housing in low- and middle-income communities. Disposable nappies are a growing source of non-recyclable waste, and cement production is responsible for almost 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and consumes around 50 billion tonnes of sand each year. In an attempt to solve two environmental problems at once, researchers at the University of Kitakyushu in Japan have found that shredded nappies can be used to replace between 9 and 40% of the sand used in making concrete without reducing its strength.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |