Papercrete: An Efficient Use of Waste Paper

Abstract

These days CO2 emission from construction sites because of cement use is a global issue. In order to address environmental effects associated with cement manufacturing and constantly depleting natural resources, there is a need to develop alternative binders to make concrete industry sustainable. On the other hand, more waste paper ends up in landfills or dump sites than those recycled due to which all countries are facing a serious challenge in disposing of waste. If current trends continue, with waste production projected to grow by 5% each year, landfills would be at full capacity by 2020. Based on the review of large quantity of related national and international references, the state-of-art of the research and development on papercrete is presented in this paper. Papercrete is a new composite material using waste paper as a partial replacement of Portland cement. By using waste paper, papercrete is not only reducing the amount of cement used but also making environment-friendly building materials. The mixture proportion, the durability, the basic physical and chemical properties and the structural performance of papercrete are mainly investigated.

Keywords: Papercrete, binder, waste paper