Usage of wet blue shaving in sand-cement blocks: An approach towards solid waste management in tannery

Abstract

The experimental study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of wet blue shaving-sand-cement blocks as an alternative building material for conventional clay brick that can be a better management system for solid wastes in the tannery industry. Wet blue shaving (WBS) is one of the highly generated solid wastes from tanneries. There is no significant utilization of this waste. Preparation of building blocks from WBS incorporated with sand-cement would be a promising avenue for this waste management. Wet blue shavings mixed with sand-cement (cement:sand=1:5) in various proportions (0%, 1%, 2%, and 4% by total dry weight) were used to prepare total 48 building blocks (254mm x 127mm x 76.2mm) and their feasibility as a construction material was appraised based on their physical and mechanical characteristics. The Bangladesh Standards and the American Society for Testing Materials standards (ASTM) were used to assess the engineering qualities of the prepared blocks. Among all the composite block specimens, blocks with 1%, and 2% WBS show 17.65MPa, and 13.87MPa compressive strength, respectively in 28 days of water curing. The costs (1292 BDT/100 blocks) of this type of waste management method were found to be favorable. Due to the usage of clay bricks in abundance with the construction sector, the world requires alternatives to prevent the exploitation of the topsoil that makes the soil lose its fertility. As a result, the wet blue shaving composite block is regarded as an environment-friendly alternative among all disposal methods and would be a potential substitute for fired clay brick.