Recycling Ceramic Waste to Produce Green Concrete

Concrete is the most consumed construction material in the world. The cement production contributes around 5% of CO2 emissions globally. Due to this substantial production, conventional resource supplies are in decline. This unsustainable supply has prompted a paradigm shift towards alternative raw materials to reduce the consumption of conventional concrete constituents and produce ‘green concrete’. One of the most effective ways is to replace cement with pozzolans derived from industry wastes, such as ceramic. Ceramics are the single largest contributor to construction and demolition waste globally, 54% in 2014 alone. There are approximately 68 million tonnes of ceramic waste sent to landfills annually in the UK. Current research into utilizing ceramics waste as a potential pozzolanic material in the production of ‘green concrete’ has had promising results. This study investigates the feasibility of using recycled ceramic waste in order to produce high performance concrete, while simultaneously reducing the consumption of cement. In this project, the mechanical performance of cement mortar samples, with a 15 % ceramic-cement replacement by weight was analysed and discussed. Further, the chemical properties of the concrete samples were determined using X-ray Powder Diffraction and the results were correlated with the mechanical strength tests. This study shows that ceramic waste of UK source can be a promising cement replacement to produce “green concrete”.