Brick Manufacturing by Amalgamation of Sludge and Glass Powder

Waste may be defined as unwanted materials generated after the manufacturing process from industry, agriculture or from household activities. Waste causes many nuisances in environment. It creates many infectious diseases for living beings. The greatest solid waste disposal problems are from sludge generated by municipal wastewater treatment plants. Dewatered sludge is disposed off by land filling. However, it is not an appropriate solution due to land limitation. Fly ash is one of the major residues generated during combustion of coal in thermal power plants and the glass waste is a problematic threat to environment. The experimental study aimed to check the feasibility of using water treatment sludge, fly ash and glass powder in brick making that can be used as building material and analyse the effect of sludge and glass powder in brick in terms of compressive strength, water absorption, and efflorescence. In this study, the sludge from water treatment plant Punalur was collected and analysed. As a remedial measure, that is to reduce the wastage of land the clay is partially replaced with sludge, fly ash and glass powder in brick making. Then the various properties of the bricks are studied. The need for the study is to reduce the environment impact of disposal of the main two waste products i.e. water treatment plant sludge and glass powder. Clay bricks available in some regions have poor quality, low compressive strength, higher water absorption which have been compelling to develop better materials to counter these issues. So, the main objective of this study is the conservation of natural resources like clay and to check the feasibility of making brick from sludge and glass powder for a sustainable development.