With the use of this newly developed material we reduce mining for natural resources by utilizing prodigious fired waste from ceramic industries as raw material in high proportion. The material has been tested by 'Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute', Govt of India. It has been reported to be 35% stronger than traditional ceramics and also uses lesser energy to fire.
The project started with a thought that however we reuse the fired waste it shouldn’t be a one step consumption of the waste, eventually creating more waste. Recurring utilization of the material was a priority and the process has paved way for a closed-loop manufacturing that adheres to the principles of circular economy. To accomplish this, pulverized industrial rejects are used in a proportion of 60%-70% with minimum amount of clay which acts as a natural binder. As clay, after firing, turns into ceramics we are basically working with a mono-material. The advantage of doing so is that even if we get any rejects in our production we can reuse the pieces as our raw material, virtually endlessly, without downgrading its quality. Hence, the production of these recycled ceramic wares can be achieved through zero waste manufacturing.
While working with ceramics I realized industries are facing daunting challenges to address the fired waste from their production. As we know, ceramics once fired remains un-weathered for centuries. Just one ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing cluster in India produces around 75 tons of waste daily, multiply this by 5 decades of production.
This project is designed to be inclusive for all its stakeholders: the industries, the policy makers, designers, consumers and the environment.
The manufacturing industries get rid of their production waste,
ease of working with this material helps designers to freely work with it, high
proportion of recycled content would help in policy making for industries
at-large, consumers get to enjoy their lifestyle without compromising on the
functionality and aesthetics – use stronger durable ceramics, with this we
reduce mining for natural resources by up to 70%
directly supporting United
Nations’ SDG-12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.
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