Skip to main content

Turning cigarette butts into bricks


Cigarettes are as much an environmental problem as they are a health hazard. Walk along a beach or a bustling street and you step on a lot of cigarette butts. They have poor biodegradability, and for decades they have been thought of as 'unrecyclable'.

But an engineer at Australia's RMIT University has found a way to not only divert some of those used filters from ending up in the environment, but also a way to make them into something useful: bricks. Dr. Abbas Mohajerani and his team discovered that fired-clay bricks made with cigarette butts can save energy and help solve a global littering problem. They were found to be lighter with better insulation properties, and their quality is hardly different from that of normal bricks.

Mohajerani said: "Incorporating butts into bricks can effectively solve a global litter problem as recycled cigarette butts can be placed in bricks without any fear of leaching or contamination.

"They are also cheaper to produce in terms of energy requirements, and as more butts are incorporated, the energy cost decreases further."

About 6 trillion cigarettes are produced each year, creating about 1.2 million tons of cigarette butt waste. Mohajerani estimates that if just 2.5 percent of bricks made worldwide were made up of 1 percent butts, the the impact could be significant.

[h/t: TreeHugger]
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 25, 2016 at 11:24 PM

    I field stripe and don't litter. The idiots that do litter are not of the mindset that would assist your efforts. I applaud your work, perhaps if there is a will there is a way to see your journey of purpose through.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 26, 2016 at 3:11 AM

    Who wrote this bullshit?
    Ok so wait, 6 trillion cigarettes = 1.2 trillion tons of waste.
    Lets break that down with common sense, and start striking out the similar words.
    6 trillion cigarettes = 1.2 trillion tons of waste.
    6 cigarettes = 1.2 tons of waste
    1 cigarette = 400 lbs of waste
    really? Wtf?


    (1 ton equals 2000lbs, 1.2 tons equals 2400lbs)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hand-Painted Movie Posters by Tony Stella

In the 70s and 80s movie theaters in Manila were usually standalone buildings with nice seats and red curtains. To sell tickets, cinemas needed to advertise their offerings. But they did not have the original posters, or the means to print alternatives. So they made their own, commissioning local artists to hand-paint them. I really miss those hand-painted posters and billboards, which conveyed an artistry that was a form of visual hyperbole. But hand-made objects always have a way of returning. In this digital age, people will always look for things made by hand. I recently stumbled across the work of Tony Stella, whose genuinely cool movie posters have caught the eye of film enthusiasts and art lovers worldwide. He likes to work in watercolor and ink wash but sometimes he will make an oil painting, depending on the film. Tony's very active on social media, and his Tumblr blog contains a massive collection of illustrated movie posters that are often better than the original. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joie de vivre

Emily Powell has made a name for herself with her series of simple, colorful and exuberant paintings. Her passion pours out directly onto the canvas, inspiring the viewer to do something fun.  Emily has exhibited with the Royal Society of Art and collaborated with MoMA and British Museum. Whether it's a coastal landscape, a cute animal, or an explosion of florals, her paintings will surely light up your day.
Post a Comment
Read more

Stencils and Subtlety

If there were a Michelin star for public murals, Roamcouch would have it. No debate. His art is an elegant contradiction; it stops you in mid-stride and makes you stare. You argue with what you see. He works with scenes from everyday life, nothing fancy, then drops them into backgrounds full of playfulness and surprise. His murals feel like small rebellions, and they insist on being noticed. Here are some of his recent street art works. Roamcouch has a Facebook page and a website where you can find all his work.
Post a Comment
Read more