Design Solution · Materials Science
Design Solution · Dream about it
Facing brick made from reclaimed construction waste.
The brick skin is made from bricks produced out of reclaimed construction and demolition waste, diverting around 28 tonnes of material from landfill. Using waste-derived facing brick lowers embodied carbon and demonstrates circular sourcing. It can substitute for conventional fired brick on many buildings.
Brick produced from reclaimed construction and demolition waste diverts material from landfill — around 28 tonnes in this case — while providing a facing product whose circular sourcing credential is documentable in a way that recycled-content claims for other materials often are not. The embodied-carbon reduction relative to conventionally fired brick is real but varies significantly with the waste feedstock composition, firing temperature and transport distance from manufacturing facility to site; the record carries no lifecycle assessment figures to anchor the claim quantitatively. From a specifier's standpoint the practical questions centre on consistency and availability: waste-derived brick feedstocks are variable by nature, which means colour matching across multiple production runs is harder to guarantee than with virgin-clay products, and manufacturing capacity is limited compared with conventional brick — lead times and minimum order quantities can be constraining on large schemes. Mortar compatibility, water absorption and frost resistance should be verified against the specific product rather than assumed from conventional brick standards. The strongest case for specifying this material is on projects with explicit circular economy commitments or planning conditions requiring waste diversion, where the supply-chain challenge is manageable within the programme.
#circular economy #recycled materials #brick