Investigation on the potential use of waste paper to produce papercrete bricks

A significant demand has been placed on the building material industry, especially in the last decade due to the increasing population, which causes a chronic shortage of building materials. The current study aims at utilizing waste paper to produce papercrete bricks and study their engineering properties, a step towards sustainable development. Papercrete is rapidly gaining popularity in the building construction industry worldwide because of its environmental friendliness, low-cost and lightweight. The study considered literature and related ideas up to conceptualization and design of the trial ratio used in testing. Trial mixes of paper sludge, sand, and cement at different proportions made papercrete bricks of dimensions 220×110×102 mm. The tests conducted included compressive strength and water absorption. The mixes of paper sludge, sand, and cement in the ratio of 50, 35, and 15%, respectively, gave the best results. The compressive strength increased with the increase in the curing period. The rate at which the papercrete bricks absorbed water reduced as the curing period increased for all the papercrete trial mixes. It was concluded that percentages of paper sludge less than 50% are recommended for non-load bearing walls such as parapet walls and partition walls.