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Recycling building waste

Last Updated 29 September 2014, 15:19 IST

Gramavidya, an NGO concerned about recycling building wastes, is working on passing on its knowledge and skill sets to students, architects, masons and others linked to the building industry.

Gramavidya recently had a three-day training programme for students, architects and masons, with a focus on alternative and energy-efficient building technologies. The alternative here is constructing buildings with recyclable materials like soil from excavated land and even debris from buildings that are demolished. 

“Debris is a major concern in Bangalore. Every other day, you will see a building being torn down to make a bigger one here. So, where does all the debris go? They are thrown into the lake bodies which creates another problem – lake encroachment,” Dr M R Yogananda, who heads Mrinmayee, the work office of Gramavidya, explained. 

He says that instead of wasting the debris, which contains a lot of recyclable matter, it can be used to construct economically feasible, energy-efficient buildings.

“Energy efficient, because the amount of heat energy needed to make bricks that are usually used to make buildings is 30 to 40 per cent more compared to the methods we use for making stabilised mud blocks from soil and debris,” Yogananda said. 

Moreover, the cost of construction is less when mud blocks are used, Yogananda said, citing as an example of his own house at Jayanagar and the office building at Doresenapalya, both made with stabilised mud blocks that have stood the test of time for the last 25 years. 

The training programme focuses on making participants aware of the wastages of a building and methods of recycling the waste. 

“Sand, soil, debris and the waste from granite polishing can all be used to make sustainable buildings. The architect or the mason has to study the local resources before construction. For example, local timber is an excellent substitute for teak and other woods. Which is why it is important to plant trees, not only for the environment but also to get resource materials,” Yogananda said.

Pramod A V, the structural engineer at Mrinmayee, said that one of the most important areas of construction is to make the building earthquake resistant.

“Earthquake resistant masonry is an important part of the training programme, we have trained architecture and engineering students to be aware of the shortcomings of a building, and take precautions like tying the different bands of the masonry walls so that they act as one unit and don’t fall apart when an earthquake occurs,” Pramod said. 

The students were also taught the concept of green buildings, or eco-friendly buildings. 

“The concept of a green building seems defeated, because everyone talks about it, but they don’t understand that the waste they are dumping during and after every construction completely defeats the purpose. We have finite resources, we already have crisis of sand and water bodies, soon land will also be a problem,” Yogananda explained. The training programmes are conducted thrice in a year.

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(Published 29 September 2014, 15:19 IST)

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