ALTERNATE BUILDING

MATERIALS
TETRA PAK CARTONS AS ROOFING
MATERIAL

Submitted to
Dr. Kalaiselvi
Department of Architecture
School of Planning and Architecture ,Vijayawada

Submitted by

Soumendra Roy
I YEAR , REG.NO- 1150500028

In partial requirement for fulfillment of the course of Master of Architecture

SUBMITTED ON: 1 February 2016

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SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE, VIJAYAWADA

1. Introduction
In todays world over-exploitation of resources
has led to the term sustainability to be the most
important developmental agenda for the world
leaders. Under sustainability there are three Rs
(reduce, reuse and recycle) which help us use the
resources judiciously to their maximum
potential. In this discussion, we look forward to
suggesting an alternative material to the building
industry in order to reduce the pressure on our
limited resources. Instead of using natural raw
materials to produce building materials, it would
be better if these alternate building materials
could be produced from the waste materials,
provided there is enough bulk supply of the
waste material available. This would not only
reduce the consumption of resources but also
recycle and reuse the waste materials, thus
benefitting the planet in a better way which
would be economical, feasible as well as ecofriendly. Let us have a look at the two materials
to be chosen where the former is replaced by the
latter- The cement and tin roofing by poly
aluminium roofing.

2. Why Poly-Aluminium
sheets

environment. Polyethylene is non-biodegradable

and so cannot be naturally and safely be
decomposed. So there is a need to recycle this
material into something more useful material.
The cement industry produces about 5%
of global man-made CO2 emissions, of which
50% is from the chemical process, and 40%
from burning fuel. It is necessary to reduce the
excessive production of cement to lead to a
sustainable future. Metals like iron and
aluminium too are being mined at an alarming
rate in order to feed the growing demands of the
existing and the new manufacturing plants.
Thus, in building construction industry, we can
use alternative options to the first time use of
metals and rather use recycled materials. Taking
up roofing as one of the ways in which theses
recycled cartons can replace metals and asbestos
sheets, we would explore ways to do it.

3. Ways to recycle Tetra Pak cartons

The carton consists of six layers of materials
hot pressed together. Aluminium and paper
layers are sandwiched alternatively between four
layers of polyethylene as shown in figure 1.

roofing

Most of the urban population of India and of

the world consume a lot of perishable items like
milk, fruit juice, packaged food, etc. every day
and thus come across a very useful product
which is the carton produced by Tetra Pak to
preserve the freshness of these items and protect
them from being attacked by microbes. However
one important aspect which we miss while using
these product is that after the food has been
consumed, these tetra pak cartons are dumped
off either in landfills or are incinerated in
garbage disposal plants. The total number of
these packaging cartons delivered in the year
2014 was 179,888 million. Such a massive
amount of waste material being produced every
year would pose serious threat to the

Figure 1 : Layers of Tetra Pak carton

The aluminium helps to protect the food from

oxygen and light under ambient conditions while
the paperboard is used to provide strength,
stability and smoothness to the carton. The

polyethylene prevents moisture from entering

the carton and binds the aluminium and the
paperboard together. Thus the carton can be
reused as it is in some other ways like making
tents, bags etc. One way we can us the cartons
directly as a building material is by flattening
them and then nail or attach them to roof like
shingles but this method has many problems as
water may leak, and it would be very labour
intensive activity to nail each and every carton
separately. In addition to this the various shape,
size and colour of the different cartons would
make it difficult to use different types of cartons
together. To use the cartons judiciously and
uniformly then can be recycled by converting it
into another form using heat or pressure. But in
order to recycle it, the layers of the carton need
to be separated and the paper has to be removed
from the poly aluminium layers. The paper can
be separated from the used carton using a
hydrapulper by converting it into a pulp and can
be used as raw material for the paper industry.
The remaining residue can then be used to
produce rigid boards, sheets and corrugated
sheets made of aluminium and polyethylene.
Polyethylene (C2H4) n

Aluminium --

Al

4. Case study in India

Figure 2 : Trash Mahal in Auroville

The roofing sheets were ordered from an

organisation known as The Daman Ganga plan
is located in Vapi, Gujarat and owned by Tushar
Shah. The plant is currently trying to increase its
output to respond to a growing demand for the
material it produces. Shredded tetra pak cartons
are put in a mould and heated to activate the
inherent plastics, paraffin and glues to form an
adhesive mass. Then the resultant is pressed
under a hot roller in a form of the designed
product. In case of roofing it is pressed to form a
corrugated sheet in order to be rigid and strong
sheets. Then they are properly cut in exact
dimensions as depicted in figure 3.

The Auroville Trash Mahal (figure2) is one

such excellent example where the roofing is
made from hot pressed tetra pack after the paper
has been removed from it.

Figure 3 : Cutting poly-aluminium sheets

to size

The sheet so formed can be installed easily

similar to installing metal or asbestos sheets
using, nuts, bolts, angles, purlins and steel
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sections. Figure 4 shows volunteers in Auroville

fixing the roofing sheets to form the roofing of
Trash Mahal. In fact the same material is now
being used in many of the on-going projects in
Auroville like the Sacred Groves Housing.

Table 1: properties of fibrocement roof and poly-Al roof

Flexion
Resistance
(N/m)
Water
Absorption (%)

Surface flame
propagation
index (1p)
Heat evolution
factor (Q)

Figure 4: Fixing of Poly Aluminum

Roofing
5. Advantages of Polyethylene-

Flame
propagation
index (Pc)

Fibrocement
Roofing
Sheets

Daman Ganga
Tuff Roof
Sheets

4x103

7.63x106

37

6.5

Average

Min.

Max.

160

138

195

44.8

38.3

55.9

3.6

3.5

3.6

Aluminium Roofing sheets

The poly-aluminium sheets are strong and

flexible thus making them difficult to break.
Since plastic is non-conductor of heat and
due to reflective properties these sheets
have low heat absorption. Tests suggest
that they keep the interior almost 25%
cooler than cement or metal roofing sheets.
Due to being made of plastic and aluminium
these sheets are anti-fungus and are free of
maintenance or colouring requirements.
These sheets are very light with a density of
just 148 kg/m3 and are convenient to be
installed as well as reduce the dead load of
the building.
Due to its high flexion resistance, these
sheets are also crack proof
These roofing sheets do not absorb much
water even during the monsoons in India.
As claimed by the company which produces
them, these sheets are also fire retardant
under normal circumstances.

The comparison of the properties of the poly

aluminium sheets made by Daman Ganga in
Gujarat with those of common fibrocement
roofing sheets is given in Table.1 below :-

6. Case study of Thailand

In June 2010, Tetra Pack Thailand collaborated
with the Princess Pa Foundation, the Thai Red
Cross Society and Big C Supercentre to kick off
the "Green Roof Project for Princess Pa
Foundation". Under this project, used cartons
dropped off at Big C outlets and other collection
points are transformed into roofing sheets. The
Green Roof Project was first launched in 2010,
initially for a three-year period, but has proved
so successful that it has now been extended to
run to 2016. The project was inspired by earlier
recycling campaigns, which delivered classroom
sets and notebooks made from cartons to schools
across Thailand.
The project takes used cartons and recycles
them into corrugated roofing sheets for the
Princess Pa Foundation (part of the Thai Red
Cross Society) to use when constructing homes
and shelters for victims of floods and natural
disasters as shown in the figure 5.

Figure 5: Shelters for flood victims in Thailand

7. Conclusion

Thus the roofing sheets made from used Tetra

Pak cartons are a good alternative to the fibrocement and metallic roofing sheets. In fact these
sheets perform better than the conventional
sheets used now. Though factories have been
producing these roofing sheets but are not being
used extensively all over the country or the
world. This way of creating a building material
not only reduces our resource consumption but
also reduces the amount of waste generated.
This in turn helps the environment and allows
for a sustainable habitat for all of us.

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References
1. Fatoki, JG, Omoniyi, TE & Onilude, MA 2015, Design and fabrication of a hydrapulper
for Disintegrating disused tetra pak beverage cartons, European International Journal
of Science and Technology, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 113-123.
2. Hidalgo, M 2011, Manufacturing rigid board by packaging waste containing aluminium
and polyethylene, Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, vol. 70, pp. 232-234.
3. Sullivan, D, Bannish, C, Fidanza, A, Peterson, N, Rungthanaphatsophon, P,
Intaranukulkit, T & Jundee, P 2012, Environmentally Friendly Roofing Materials in
Chiang Mai, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Chulalongkorn University
4. Neves, F L & Zuben, F J 2003, Recycling of aluminium and polyethylene from Tetra Pak
carton packages as plastic composite, Proceedings of the Global Plastics Environment
Concil-2003, Detroit, USA, pp. 371-378.
5. Tetra Pak International n.d, The green roof project, viewed 26 January 2016,
<http://www.tetrapak.com/sustainability/recycling/expanding-the-market-for-recycledmaterials/the-green-roof-project>.
6. Deboonme, A 2013, Cartons can now become roofs, Business, The Nation Multimedia,
viewed 27 January 2016, <http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Cartons-can-nowbecome-roofs-30208992.html>.
7. Daman Ganga Board Mills n.d, Polyethylene-Aluminium composite roofing systems,

viewed 26 January 2016, <http://www.damanganga.com/tuff-roof.pdf>.