PERFORMANCE AND PROPERTIES OF ECO-FRIENDLY CEMENT BRICKS ADDED WITH POLYESTER FABRIC WASTES

With brick a common construction material, there is a shortage of sources for making bricks. Fabric wastes can serve as replacement for a portion of brick aggregates both for practicality and sustainability. This is especially since the fashion industry has been known to contribute to negative environmental impacts. This paper describes the materials and methods as well as properties of eco-friendly cement bricks added with polyester fabric wastes. The eco-friendly bricks were compared to traditional cement bricks in terms of physical and mechanical properties. Traditional bricks were prepared at a ratio of 1:5 of cement to sand while eco-friendly bricks were prepared at a ratio of 1:5:1 of cement to sand to fabric wastes. All the methods used in this study were based on the standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM, 2006). Statistical analysis using t-test revealed that both bricks were comparable in terms of physical properties of mass (kg) (t=1.780, p=0.086), bulk density (kg/m3) (t=1.780, p=0.086), and water absorption percentage (%) (t=–0.336, p=0.740) as well as mechanical properties of maximum load (kN) (t=1.000, p=0.326) and compressive strength (Mpa) (t=1.000, p=0.326) with results having no significant differences in their means. In terms of cost, eco-friendly bricks are cheaper by Php 3.00 than traditional bricks. Eco-friendly cement bricks added with polyester fabric wastes can therefore serve as a viable alternative for traditional bricks. Additional testing such as in situ testing can be conducted to determine practical applications of the eco-friendly bricks added with fabric wastes in non-load bearing walls for instance.