Eco-friendly bricks aid trash recycling
Print Edition
Walking along the streets of Zhuanqiao Town, passers-by have noticed unusual -looking bricks resembling black rice cakes with white sesame on top.
The bricks are pervious concrete, a sustainable, eco-friendly material that allows rain water to pass directly through.
The bricks are made from recycled trash. A 1.2-square-meter block of pervious concrete effectively removes garbage the size of a basketball from landfills.
Minhang District produces 8 million tons of garbage every year, or about 10 percent of Shanghai’s trash total. Authorities are trying to find ways to recycle much of the rubbish. For example, the main rockery structure in the Minhang Sports Park is constructed from recycled garbage.
She Ganbian, a designer with the Minhang Afforestation and City Appearance Bureau demonstrated the function of pervious concrete with a bottle of water.
“Rain water can pass through the concrete slab directly,” he said. “And it dries quickly in a sunny spell. Its porousness means the concrete is ideal for use in the ‘sponge city’ program.”
Thirteen sites that handle construction scraps have begun pre-treatment of waste. The towns of Huacao and Maqiao are planning to sort and “digest” such garbage, which should lower the cost of construction materials while adhering to tighter environmental rules.
“Pervious concrete also helps trees and other greenery by allowing water to seep into those areas,” said Dai Yubin, who works at Minhang Afforestation and City Appearance. “And the roughness of the concrete surface prevents pedestrians from slipping in rainy weather.”
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