SELECTION OF MATERIALS, USE OF MATERIAL COMPOSITES AND

RECYCLING OF WASTES IN LOW COST CONSTRUCTION

Ar.Suvarna Lele,Rizvi College Of Architecture,Mumbai

Ar.Sarita Deshpande,NDMVPS College Of Architecture,Nashik.

ABSTRACT : The paper takes a general overview of the significance of selection of materials in
affordable housing to reduce the environmental impact associated with the processing and usage
of source materials. It deals with reducing the energy usage and cost by manufacturing the
materials from the industrial wastes and agro wastes.
INTRODUCTION-

It is a well known fact that about half of the total Investments in our country go to the sector of
construction. About 90% of investments in this field come from the private sector. A Large chunk
of middle-income group and lower income group invest their life long saving to build their own
houses (as Banks and Financial Institutions generally do not provide them with Finance for wants
of several necessary Documents).
It is very essential to help this large segment, by providing them necessary information regarding
the cost saving techniques of construction, for saving their hard earned money. At the same time
precious, materials like cement and steel can be saved, which can be used for more construction.
More over several Government organizations as well as the private centers are trying to introduce
the new building materials as well as composites construction Techniques. They have also come
up with several cost saving technologies which go un-noticed and hardly used on actual sites.
Cost effective housing is one of the major focus areas in India, where a systematic approach is
required to construct, cost effective, safe, and environment friendly houses for the general public.

NECESSITY FOR COST REDUCTION

-Increase in construction costs directly affects the economy. This is due to the high cost of
operations which can be reduced on several levels by use of efficient Planning, cost effective
technologies and materials, use of alternate techniques available, Project Management and
procedures improving the procurement and dispute resolution mechanism along with the
measures for initiating more competition and transparency among contractors.
The surplus gained from the saving of this surplus cost may be used for the activities such as
labour welfare, implementation of modern machinery and up gradation of technologies and
Construction of More Houses
It becomes necessary to adopt the use of alternative building materials & Construction
technologies due to adverse effect of using scarce resources carelessly and eventual rise in the
cost of the project. However many practitioners and laymen are unaware of usage of appropriate
techniques in construction. Some State Governments and Agencies of the Central Government
are propagating these materials and Technologies, but the lack of precision in their specifications
and absence of scheduled of Rates of these technologies, makes the construction based on
these materials and technologies impossible. Many people are privately using the same, but this
is not enough as till the government agencies start using them extensively, they will not be
popular.
 Reused

Locally available low embodied energy

Material
Recyclable Selectio biodegradable
n
criteria
Energy efficient pollution preventing

Salvaged Non toxic

SELECTION OF MATERIALS-

To incorporate sustainable design principles the easiest way is to select environment friendly
materials. Energy conservation can be achieved through every stage of material life cycle. The
Life cycle can be divided into pre-building, building and post building stage. These three stages
indicate flow of building materials through different stages of a building.Pre-building stage mainly
consists of manufacture which is subdivided in processing, packing and transport. The building
phase mainly consists of construction, operation and maintenance whilst as the last stage would
be disposal where the material can be recycled or reused.
1) In Manufacturing – Pollution prevention.
Some manufacturers carefully consider the modes of production and choose the materials which
are environment friendly. These companies study and revise the methods of producing the goods
to improve their quality, efficiency and reduction of waste. Selecting materials manufactured by
environmentally responsible companies is encouraging them for pollution prevention.
2) Recycling of wastes in Manufacturing – The wastes which can be recycled can and used in
masonries whilst as wooden wastes can be used in manufacture of plywood or soft boards.
(Courtesy-BMTPC)
3) Reducing Embodied Energy and use of Natural materials – The total energy required to
produce a material is called embodied energy. The energy is gained by burning of fossil fuels.
The greater a materials embodied energy; it requires a greater usage of non-renewable sources.
It is therefore advantageous to use materials or composite materials prepared from the wastages.
The natural materials such as stones, wood, lime, sand and bamboo can be used in ample where
ever possible. The natural materials impact more sustainability to structures as well as they are
friendlier to environment.
4) Use of Local material – This is one of the very significant aspect of energy saving. The
transport costs are heavy for the materials which are carried from long distances. Using locally
available materials reduce this cost as well as the local materials are better suited to the climate
conditions. In any case if the materials are to be transported, they should be transported in a
small volume.
5) Energy Efficiency – Energy efficiently of a building material can be measured through various
factors as its R value, shading coefficient, luminous efficiency or fuel efficiency. Energy efficient
materials must reduce the amount of generated energy.
6)Use of non-toxic materials – The type of materials used, play a significant role in health of
people constructing a building and people occupying the building hence to maintain a good air
quality inside and outside, the selection of materials should be done with care. There are several
chemicals including formaldehydes, benzene, ammonia, resins, chemicals in insulations, ply
boards which are present in furnishings and building material. The health effect of these toxic
materials must be considered while their selection and they must be used only where-ever
required.
Higher air cycling is recommended while installation of materials having volatile organic
compound such as several adhesives, paints, sealants, cleaners and so on.
7) Longitivity, durability and maintenance of a material – The materials having longer life are
considered to be good for construction due to their permanence. The durable material in long
term would be cost effective than the materials which need to be replaced. The lower
maintenance costs naturally save a lot of building operating cost. The materials used in building
determine the long term costs of an operating.
8) Recyclability and reusability – A material should be available in form which can be
recyclable or reusable. Ex – the plastics waste can be used for recycling and producing newer
materials. The scrap from steel can be used to manufacture the rcc bars, binding covers and
other miscellaneous steel products in building construction.
9) Biodegrability –A material should be able to decompose naturally when
discarded. Natural materials or organic materials would decompose very easily. It is also a very
important consideration whether a material decomposes naturally or produces some toxic gases.

COMPOSITES AS BUILDING MATERIALS

The compositions of any two materials acting with their strength together are composites. Natural
fiber materials are coming up as excellent substitutes for the prevailing building materials. Fibers
likes jute, sisal coconut, ramie, banana are cheap and environmentally suited as they are made
from natural fibers. They are also replacing the fiber reinforced plastics.
Composites present immense opportunities to replace traditional materials as timber, steel,
aluminum and concrete in buildings. They benefit in resisting corrosion and their low weight has
been proved useful in many low stress applications. Each type of composite has its own
characteristic properties and thus useful for specific purpose.
Jute fiber reinforced polypropylene composites, coir fiber reinforced
composites, sisal fiber and wollastonite jute pultruded composites are a few to be named. CBRI
has developed MDF composite doors containing coir fiber, cashew nut, shell liquid (CNSL) as
natural resin and Para formaldehyde as major constituents.
India has excellent knowledge regarding several binding factors as resins,
catalysts and curing processes. It has tremendous potential of becoming a leader in composite
technology with availability of several natural fibers in ample.
The composites can also be glass fiber reinforced or industrial waste
based .Several prefabricated items used in building industry can be manufactured from
composites. They can be used to manufacture portable toilets, water storage tanks, outdoor
furniture’s, exterior claddings, interior decoration, bath tubs, basins,door and window frames,
cabinets and several others.Thus the application in construction vary from cladding to internal
furnishings and the owner highly benefits due to their application because of their light weight,
resistance to corrosion and availability in different colours. Pultrusion is most cost effective
method for producing composite profiles. It is commercially applicable for light weight corrosion
free structures, electrical non conductive systems and so many other functions.
The pultruded items are recognized and recommended in the Global markets.
Pultrated sections are well established alternative to steel, wood and aluminium in developed
countries and catching fast in other parts of the world.

RECYCLING OF WASTES

Waste disposal and management is global concern. All the industries produce some kind of
waste in huge quantities. Similarly, managing urban household waste is big issue discussed on
all environment related forums. Many agencies and countries worldwide are exploring
possibilities to re-cycle waste materials in many different applications. Construction is one of the
prime activities identified to receive re-cycled waste in variety of form and materials. Using waste
material in the construction as replacement to some other material also reduces the cost of
construction of the building.
Type of solid Industrial waste which can be recycled-
•Fly ash (105 mil. tons/annum)
•Coal mine wastes (50 mil. tons/annum)
•Lime stone waste (18 mil. tons/annum)
•Blast furnace slag (11 mil. tons/annum)
•Iron ore tailings (10.5 mil. tons/annum)
•Copper mine tailings (4 mil. tons/annum)
•Marble dust (6 mil.tons/annum)
•Red mud, lime sludge, phospho-gypsum, zinc tailings, kiln dust, gold mine tailings etc
(Source: Morchhale, et al J. of Rural Tech. 2 (2) 2005)
The waste material or materials generated from waste are two categories. In the first
category it is the wastage of building materials which is consumed or put to use whereas in the
second category industrial waste or byproduct is processed or recycled to be used as a product
or material for building. This second category is the point of study in this case.
Large quantities of wastes are produced in process of manufacturing. If properly thought about,
these materials can be recycled or reused in some other forms.
Construction with the application of various building materials produces tremendous waste. Age
and durability of a particular material would determine its capacity to be reused. Very durable
materials like stone, timber have many useful years of service left when the structure where they
are used is decommissioned. Every other aspects like, wooden frames, plumbing frames and
even bricks can be reused. The broken pieces of flooring materials, glazed tiles can also be put to
reuse. There might be possibility of reusing the steel reinforcements in 115 walls, using the brick
wastages in coba or the tiles in mosaic works.
Building materials and Technical promotion council is working towards the recycling of waste
materials acquired from industries.
Most common and popular material for waste re-cycling is steel. Engineering industries
produce huge amount of scrap steel. Many rolling mills accept this waste and re-roll this waste
into reinforcement bars, binding wires and other miscellaneous steel products used in building
construction. It is commonly used in construction in rural areas and for petty constructions. This
practice is not acceptable to most of the structural consultants since many times composition of
‘raw material’ going into these rolling mills is not known and questionable. As architects we must
insist on testing of each batch of such reinforcement steel received for use.
By recent estimate, thermal power plants in India today produce more than 85 million tons of
fly ash. Disposal of fly ash is therefore seen as big environmental issue. Fly ash that is industrial
waste from thermal power plants is pushed as additive to concrete by many environment
professionals. Technique of adding fly ash to concrete is tried and tested. It is found safe to add
certain percentage of fly ash to the concrete without compromising the strength of concrete. This
results into good amount of saving on cost of cement and sand.
Fly ash is also used with clay as additive to make building blocks and bricks. In fact, in areas
close to thermal power plants making fly ash bricks is developing into big industry. Similarly,
units producing prefabricated construction elements not directly used in buildings, such as: Light
and fence polls, manhole covers, road curbs and median blocks, etc. are consuming huge
quantities of fly ash in their products.
Wood scrap or shavings and waste from saw mill and plywood factories is effectively put to
use by manufacturing recomposed boards from it. Waste material which is in the form of
particles, wood dust, shavings, etc. are hot-pressed to form a board by adding urea / phenyl
formaldehyde as adhesive or binder. They form particle and fiber boards of various densities or
pre-laminated boards made by covering the faces of such boards with decorative laminate or
decorative or commercial veneer.
Bagas is another waste product used in the same manner as wood or timber waste.
Bagas is waste from sugarcane. After the juice is extracted from sugarcane in the sugar mill the
waste plant material is bagas. It is fibrous in nature and still has enough moisture content in it to
prevent disintegration. Amongst the many possible uses tried for bagas, making boards for
furniture and partition panels in the manner mentioned in previous paragraph is one of the
established products. Bagas is hot-pressed adding urea/phenyl formaldehyde based binder or
adhesive to create boards of various thicknesses and densities. The resultant product is
comparable to any other particle boards of similar thicknesses and densities.
Similar types of boards are also produced using plastic waste, particularly shreds of thin
polyethylene bags (popular as carry bags). Success of this product will be a boon to waste
management efforts as these bags and other plastic products being non-biodegradable are
biggest headache for waste treatment.
In the other category, many other waste products of construction process itself are
already absorbed within the same building or on some other site. To list a few – i) Broken flooring
material is many times used to create crazy pattern flooring in outdoor areas and verandas.
ii) Waste glazed tiles are used for making waterproof floor covering referred to as china mosaic.
iii) Steel reinforcement waste is used as reinforcement in 115 thick brick walls.
iv) Broken and waste bricks are used for Brick bat coba in toilets and on terrace.
v) Waste from stone floors dressing is used for marble mosaic tiles and also in stone crete
plaster.
vi) Wooden packaging crates discarded by industries are used for making shelves and other
furniture.
In this way we can innovate and put to use a lot of waste material from construction and other
industries as replacement for new materials. This practice of using waste material for productive
use can help reduce the cost of construction to quite an extent.
Research institutions of BMTPC have developed a large number of alternate and construction
systems based on use of agro-industrial wastes.
Waste Commercial product Traditional resource Energy saved %

1. Bagasse -Bagasse-polymer- Timber fibres 30%

(Sugar mills) bonded boards (in insulation board)
2. Corn cobs- Corn cobs-cement Timber, polymer 40%
(Corn mill) bonded boards
3. Sisal fibre- Sisal fibre-polymer/ Asbestos fibre,- 20-15%
(Sisal plant) cement bonded Timber
4. Coir fibre- Coir fibre-cement Asbestos- 10%
(coir industry) roofing sheet & panels
5. Rice husk Rick-husk- cement Resin (PF or UF)- 20%
(Rice mill) building board bonded particle
board timber
6 Ground nut - Ground nut hulls- Resin-bonded- 20%
hulls (Oil mills) cement building board particle board timber
7. Jute fibre - Jute-fibre-polymer Timber, metal 10%
Jute mills) bonded panel;door and window
8. Cotton waste- Cotton-lint-cement Gypsum, timber- 25%
(courtesy-BMTPC presentation)

LIFE CYCLE THINKING

Buildings are interdependent with nature over time. Relative to our own individual life-spans
buildings as artifacts of human endeavor can last a very long time. Each building constructed can be
regarded as infrastructure for the future as well as a historical record of our society, our economy
and how we perceive our relationship with nature. From the day it is opened until well after those
responsible for its creation are dead a building's design, materials, energy requirements, and its
waste stream provides a built environment that people will construct their lives within and around.

As a building has a life cycle, so does a building material. Construc tion materials are very often
composites made up of many different types of raw materials. The mining, manufacturing,
use, mainte nance, reuse, recycling and disposal of every building material have important
environmental ramifications. This story of a building's or a material's accumulation of
environmental impact is called its life-cycle environmental performance.
 LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT

Describing the environmental impact of a building can be thought of as telling a story about the
combination of all of the environmental impacts of its constituent materials, of the
construction process, of its operation and its refurbishment and eventual demolition. The
complex web of interdependent natural systems in which impacts accumulate determine the
effect a building has. Similarly, each mate rial has a story that describes the origin of all of its
raw materials, the resources required for processing, transportation, manufacturing,
packaging, storage, delivery, use, maintenance, reuse, recycling or disposal. Each story
describes not only the resources required to make the building or material, but the
environmental impacts at each life-cycle stage.. One approach that makes understanding these
complex life-cycle stories easier is a process of evaluation called life-cycle assessment (L.CA). An
LCA considers

• extraction, processing and transportation of raw materials;

• production, transport and distribution of resulting products;
• use, reuse and maintenance;
• recycling and final disposal

The simple depiction of the life cycle is as follows

TAKE USE DISPOSE

INPUTS
OUTPUTS IMPACTS

STOCK Building life cycle

S Raw material extraction, material EMISSION TO RESOURCE
LAND production AIR DEPLETION
EXST BUILDING Production of construction EMISSION TO PHYSICAL
products SOIL DISRUPTION
SANITATION
INFR. Construction and rebuilding ALTERED CHEMICAL
LANDSCAPE POLLUTION
TRANSPORTATI Use and maintenance
ON NOISE, SOLID WASTE
INFR. VIBRATION BUILDUP
Demolition TEMPERATURE
LOST
URBAN FORM BIODIVERSITY
FLOW Reuse and recycling

ENERGY
Disposal
MATERIALS
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Fig. 2 Building life-cycle considerations. Life-cycle thinking requires us to consider the story
of the accumulated environmental loading and associated impacts of a building material and
building. Environmental loads and impacts are associated with the type and quantity of inputs to a
material or building, the processes and use of material and building, the type and quantity of
outputs from processes and use, and the nature of the receiving environments. Non-life-cycle
thinking considers only how to take, use and then dispose of material, treating nature as merely the
source of our materials and, after they are used, a sink for our wastes.

CONCLUSION

Product selection can begin after the establishment of project-specific environmental goals. The
environmental assessment process for building products involves three basic steps. - Research
Evaluation and Selection. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is an evaluation of the relative
"greenness" of building materials and products. LCA addresses the impacts of a product through
all of its life stages

The affordable housing should be seen in relation with the selection of ecological and economical
materials, usage of recycled wastes and composites which can considerably affect the economy
and ecology of construction.

REFERENCES

Sustainable building design manuel by TERI Vol 1 &2

LEED India Reference Guide ver 1
BMTPC
www.greenspec.com
www.buildinggreen.com