Scottish Startup Creates Eco-Friendly Brick Using Construction Waste

Bricks have played a major role in the world around us and have been a part of construction for decades. Unfortunately, they're not very environmentally-friendly.

So, a team of engineers from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland has created a startup, Kenoteq, that has developed the K-Briq: an eco-friendly brick.

SEE ALSO: BRICKS CAN BE USED TO SEE RADIOACTIVE PRESENCE FROM THE PAST

Sustainable bricks

Kenoteq's hope is to create a more sustainable construction industry, starting with the foundations: bricks. Say hello to it's main contender: the K-Briq.

This brick is made up of 90% construction waste, and as it doesn't require a kiln to fire it up it produces only one tenth the carbon emissions of typical bricks, reports Dezeen.

The company was put together in 2009, and is made up of civil engineer and professor of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Gabriela Medero, and Sam Chapman, another engineer.

"I have spent many years researching building materials and have been concerned that modern construction techniques exploit raw materials without considering that they are amongst the largest contributors to carbon emissions," explained Medero in Dezeen. "The amount of waste they produce is not sustainable long-term."

The issue with regular bricks is that they use up a number of natural resources and require a lot of heat to be shaped and made. According to CNN, kilns are typically used when making bricks and these require fossil fuels to heat up to their high operating temperatures — all of which likely adds to the issue of climate change.

With that in mind, Medero and Chapman created the K-Briq. As per Kenoteq, their new technology uses demolition waste to create the K-Briq, minimizing carbon emissions. Moreover they can be made in a number of colors. 

Kenoteq will be providing bricks for next year's Serpentine Pavilion in the U.K., a project designed by Counterspace. The project will make use of the different color options that Kenoteq offers and will use gray, black, and pink K-Briqs for its construction, writes CNN.

It's an exciting start for a potentially revolutionizing material that could be the shape of construction in the future.