Wricks: Eco-friendly bricks made from Waste

India is ranked as the second-largest producer of bricks in the world and produces an estimated 200 billion bricks a year. The number of brick producing units in the country is estimated to exceed 100,000 in numbers. As good quality soil is preferred as raw material for making bricks, it is approximated that the brick industry consumes around 400 million tons of good quality soil every year. Additionally, the burning of fuel for firing bricks results in emissions of gaseous pollutants and ash into the environment causing air pollution. However, a group of students from Udaipur, Rajasthan have found an alternative and green way to produce these bricks from domestic and industrial waste. The group has named their innovation, Wricks.

What is Wricks ?

Wricks are environment friendly bricks made using domestic & Industrial wastes. The made prototype, consisted of 30-40 percent of plastic waste, 40-50 percent of demolition waste, and 20 percent of marble and thermal waste.

Compared to conventional bricks, these bricks are eco-friendly and can be manufactured in a short span of time. Also, 100-120 bricks can be manufactured in an hour at just Rs 3 per brick.

The group, comprising civil engineering students, Kunjpreet Kaur Arora, Krishna Chaudhary, Daidipya Kothari, and Honey Singh Kothari, from Techno India NJR Institute of Technology, Udaipur, carried out the tests and production. They also won an innovation prize worth Rs 75,000 in the Smart India Hackathon 2018, held at NIT Trichy, Tamil Nadu.