Abstract

BETANCOURT-CHAVEZ, Julio Roberto; GONZALEZ-LOZANO, María Azucena  and  RENTERIA-SOTO, Juan. Brick made of marble waste, a sustainable proposal. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2023, vol.39, 54673.  Epub Feb 12, 2024. ISSN 0188-4999.  https://doi.org/10.20937/rica.54673.

It is well known that natural resources are deteriorating well beyond their renewal rate. The overexploitation and emission of harmful pollutants are leading to potentially irreversible changes, putting the stability of ecosystems at risk. In this sense, finding a way to reuse industrial waste that does not have a management plan is necessary and is the responsibility of all. This work presents results on the feasibility of using waste marble dust as a base material for the manufacture of non-structural bricks. The bricks were made with mixtures of marble dust, Portland cement, sand, and water; the pastes were molded, pressed and cured with water at room temperature. The compressive strength was evaluated at seven, 14, and 28 days after curing. Water absorption was measured in the cured samples, after being dried at 100 ºC for 24 h. The structure and microstructure of the bricks was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results obtained for water absorption and compressive strength indicate that the bricks with 28 days of curing could be used as non-structural bricks, since they comply with the reference parameters established in the Mexican standards.

Keywords : non-structural brick; marble waste; construction waste.