Brick bag
Manufacturing of Building Materials from Rejected Solid Waste
Brick Bag
This business plan is about recycling ‘worthless’ material back into the local economy. We aim for those waste materials that are currently overlooked, for whatever reason, and which are readily and abundantly available. We are going to collect them, process them and convert them into useful products, in this case building materials, which we will sell on several markets. Part of the profit will be re-invested in additional production lines, in further research activities and in community upgrading programs.
In Mumbai, South India, building debris is dumped illegally in large quantities. We will localize these rejected piles with our mobile factory. Then we will crumble the brick and concrete parts and put them in bags. These we will market as a high quality multi-purpose product: BRICK BAG.
With our production lines we create job opportunities among the poorest. We manufacture useful building materials and we develop building techniques to use them. And we contribute to a clean and healthy living environment. With this spin-off we will try to create a snowball-effect, and so upgrade the local communities.
The Business
Our strength lays in the fact that we look for vast quantities of rejected and overlooked materials that can be obtained almost for free. Preferably they are found on a very local level, to minimize the transportation costs. Initially we can pay the rag pickers for the collecting of these materials and we can pay workers for the labor and production of the products; we generate new sources of income, which should develop in self-supporting activities.
The solutions and techniques must remain cheap, simple, workable and understandable. This way we can keep the production costs of the building materials and techniques low, in order to make these alternative products accessible and affordable for a very large market.
The target group is the lowest income group in urban areas; people with no or low paid jobs, people who cannot afford to buy expensive building materials, people who are living in low quality houses and in unhygienic conditions. We want to provide a total program that involves awareness, job opportunities, cheap building materials, health education, and the improvement of the overall living conditions.
The same techniques and strategies can also be applied in the tsunami struck areas; although the recent need is probably more about rebuilding than about making profit. Organizing of waste management can be integrated from the start.
What is new, is that we are aiming for those resources that are freely available but still overlooked, for whatever reason. We will explore all sorts of ways to combine, shred, mix, or compress different ingredients to create blocks, bricks, plates, planks, perhaps luxury goods.
Potential materials in Bangalore involve a large variety of multilayered plastics, like juice cartons, toothpaste tubes and packaging materials. In Mumbai there seem to be great possibilities with debris and rubble from the demolishing of buildings that are built between 1900 and 1950. Currently, these materials are dumped unscientifically outside the cities. Usage of this material would save costs and prevent environmental damage besides helping the poor.
In this particular area of research there are no direct competitors; in fact, we must be careful not to interfere in the rag pickers daily source of income. We try to create new jobs in a yet unexplored area; not replace or interfere with existing jobs.
January 2005 we met with two different NGO’s, in Bangalore and Mumbai. Both NGO’s underline the potential of the idea, are willing to support the investigation and can provide the necessary facilities. They possess inventories of the waste streams and can help with the identification of potential materials. They can establish the contacts with the people involved and the people concerned and they have insight in the various markets and needs of the people. And they can provide a legal site where we can conduct the research and build examples.
There is a great chance that we are going to work on rebuilding activities in Sri Lanka; 70.000 to 90.000 new houses are needed in the Moratuwa, Dehiwala and Panadura areas. So we are also looking for a partner in or around Colombo that is specialized in waste management.
Possible Indian partners :
Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi
Mr. Anselm Rosario (director)
1300 D, 1st Cross, 1st Main, H.A.L. 3rd Stage
New Thippasandra
Bangalore - 560 075
India
email : msss@vsnl.com
website : www.mythri.org
Stree Mukti Sanghatana
Ms. Jyoti Mhapsekar (president)
31, Shramik Royal Crest
Lokmanya Tilak Colony, Rd.3
Dadar (E)
Mumbai - 400 014
India
email : smsmum@vsnl.com
The Asian partners have a great role in this part; they know about the people involved and the people concerned. Through their existing networks we will be able to reach the people for which these services are meant; the lowest income groups.
Most important feature from the side of the Smart Shelter Foundation is to show the people the actual proof; Seeing is Believing! So we are going to build some example structures as well, to visually and physically inform the people about the possibilities and techniques.
Development
We can speak of a win-win situation, when we reduce the waste streams and garbage that is dumped on the street, and turn it into valuable materials. Over the longer period we aim for a zero-waste approach, and we can improve the living standard on different levels :
Awareness and health education;
A clean and hygienic environment;
Healthy living conditions;
Improved quality of the houses;
Job opportunities;
Safe working circumstances;
Income generation;
More self-reliance and a higher self-esteem.
Unseggregated trash
We share the same passion and I am doing an experiment in our city landfill. Every garbage collected in the city are just dumped directly in the landfill without any attempt to gather the biodegradables.
Inviting you to visit my page. More power and thanks for sharing time.
Nelson