Recycled Trash Construction Materials
Recycled Trash Construction Materials
The amount of waste generated by our society is mind-boggling. Each day, families, business and other organizations produce plastic and food waste in such quantities that landfill space is rapidly running out. Composting the organic component is one option, but not all of the waste can be dealt with in that way.
Now Lawrence Reaveley, a civil engineer at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, has come up with a scheme that could reuse some of this excess trash. His new patent application claims that a blend of waste plastic and cellulose from plant material can make a good building material, once appropriately sanitized.
The mixture could either be held together using a bonding substance, or treated with heat and pressure to let the plastic already in the mix hold things together, the application says. Panels produced in this way could be used for sound or heat insulation, or they could be reinforced – for example with metal or fiberglass – to be used structurally for walls and other building features.
The plastic/cellulose mix could even be burned for fuel, the patent application claims.
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