you can find a review of alternative building materials in my paper:

F. Asdrubali, S. Schiavoni, K. V. Horoshenkov: “A review of sustainable materials for acoustic applications”, Building Acoustics 19, (4), 2012, 283-312.

you can download it from Research Gate

Check the works on sustainable building materials of researchers and see the materials been postulated. For now the alternative being proposed to sand as partial or full supplement is laterite, while stone/granite has many alternatives being proposed especially Agricultural waste products like Palm Kernel Shell and also Periwinkle Shell. This alternatives has their limitations though.

Many alternative materials are limited by inadequate finding to research viability of combinations. When i worked in sugar cane processing we threw away tonnes and tonnes of organic raw materials that could have been used for press-wood, toilet paper and packaging. We also colected fly-ash from a wet scrubber system and i piloted an experiment to see if brick-making was feasible using the pond tailings. Money was the constraint, despite some good results in brick compression and breaking strengths. In Suriname, nobody buys peat moss or other absorbent materials, they use rick husks. The naturally occurring bacteria accelerate bio-degradation of hydrocarbons and the tarred waste can be used in road-making. In French Guiana a guy was using old tyres to make sheets of "Insta-road" to use to patch potholes.

There are many sustainable alternatives but economies of scale are yet to be realised, public perception and contractor preferences need to change and availability remains another constraint.

Geo-polymer is a solution for replacing cement. Polymeric aggregates may also be used. These materials are not cost effective. Major material which is commercially available widely is the wood alternative. Fiber Boards, Particle boards, Plywood, block board etc. are the examples. For replacing stone aggregate, stone etc. demolition waste can be used. As far as brick is concerned fly ash bricks are available but its availability is regional.

I do agree to the points raised about replacing conventional building materials by other recycle-able materials.For this we need to change our structures from conventional RCC to steel , which is very much green in respect of recycling.About stone aggregates,use of demolished stone aggregate is good proposition but what about the qty and availability ?.As on date we are on a spree to demolish the hills surrounding the cities to get stone,stone aggregates.Finding alternative to concrete in the only solution to this. I hope this happens as early as possible.

Adobe

There are materials to be the alternative for building materials. In this case, recycled-aggregate and wastage material (ashes) from other industries has been a great approach for replacement. The problem is in terms of its surrounding suitability, commercial value. The cost might be slightly higher. The practicality is depending on the will of contractors and developers to use all these new green approaches.

Use of Fly-Ash has become popularized now. But still having the need to find the material that has Silica and Alumina in it as a major composition. This material has a great impact as the best alternative of cement. My research is on this side only. Is there any other developments?

Due to urban development, there is high demand for sand. This led to intense sand mining causing the destruction of waterbodies with deep pits and encroachment of riverbasin and reduction in ground water level.M sand from rock has become an alternative to sand. But this also led to the destruction of our mountains at a rapid rate due to advanced machineries. The destruction of mountains which are the source for rain will surely be responsible for the drought condition we are facing now. Urgent action is surely needed in this era for the suitable alternate building materials for the protection of our water bodies and mountains.

Dr. Sheela A. M.

Adobe and american bambu

What about the use of vegetal fiber materials, like hemp-lime mixtures, flax concrete and plenty of other fibres? they have good hygric inertia , and use renewable materials; their grey energy is lower than classical materials;

they have low mechanical properties but can be used within wooden frames;

Biomass agggregate could be a viable option

I would strongly suggest looking into using recycled aggregate by using either reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) from crushing old cracked pavements, or crushed concrete as a aggregates in pavement and concrete applications and especially for base and subbase layers in pavements that can be extremely resource intensive.

Alternative to concrete is some solution to save planet earth.But what is the solution...

I have conducted successful research to produce building bricks using the usual material as the major material along with judicious amounts of fly ash and chemical water sludge. The main advantage is that the high disposal costs for flyash and watersludge can be absorbed by the production of such bricks. Production of such modified bricks is recommended in countries where building bricks are being manufactured.

Are these buildings blocks manufactured using clay along with fly ash +water sludge ? In Goa engineering college,the civil engg.department has been able to produce building blocks out of steel slag which is lying in heaps as waste product.The other ingredients were lime and fly ash.This produced a light weight material of density around 13Kn/cum and comp. strengh of 3.3MPa .water absorption was 16 %.

Any idea about replacement for sand in concrete???

ancestral techniques can prove most efficient, when applied to local climate areas. i.e., adding coal to cement/adobe mix can prove to be a very efficient thermal insulation aggregate in extremely dry, desert-like environments, but would rot in a more damp environment. A study on these local building techniques, and maybe those of similar climate areas of the world, might also offer very valid clues...

Bamboo is the best, green and affordable alternate construction material.

Could you please explain in detail on the use of bamboo as building material

Dear Chandrashekhar K & Adhityan A,

Could you please put some light on human health, if we use fly ash and chemical water sludge?

In my country (Albay,Philippines) is abundant of suitable material as pecially for concrete I just live beside active Mayon Volcano which produces vast amount of suitable material that give excellent result on concrete and asphalt design mix.So we don't need alternate material.Some contractor are planning to export this high quality material to our neighboring country in Asia.

In our country too, though we have plenty of sand at da moment due to river deposits, i am doing a research on the possibilities of using glass powder in place of sand. The reason behind my research is, in our country, due to large number of bars, we get a large number of glass bottles which is dumped useless in the backyards. So i am exploring the suitability of it. Hopefully i get a green signal and will be able to get the report compiled soon.

In Spain we are using crushed debris (mainly bricks and other clay materials) and even crushed concrete, recycling it as gravel for new concrete.

There is manufactured sand/ artificical sand used in many parts of India alternate to river sand.

The manufactured sand is made by crushing rock pieces and this also leads to destruction of our rock.

We have made a small study in our university that shows some potential of partial replacement of cement by ceramic ware residues. The ceramic wares are finely crushed and incorporated in the mixing (5% of cement weight). The results showed that the compressive strength remains similar to a reference concrete. However, plasticity and porosity decreased.

We studied higher proportions and, obviously, all properties decreased. However, I think the incorporation of residues into new materials can decrease the use of new ones.

Dear Tenzin

Your efforts to use glass as replacement to sand are welcome.But I think , to recycle the waste glass in to making a different quality of glass, would be much more apprceiated as manufacturing glass out of natural resources is a costly affair.(Raw Material , energy cost wise)

A number of R&D institutes are working on the potential application of alternative building materials. Solid industrial wastes of silicious and calcareous nature such as flyash, industrial sludges, mining wastes etc can be used in place of soil in making suitable qualtiy of bricks, blocks etc. These things are already in practice and sufficient information is available. We have a website www.cbrienvis.nic.in wherein we have described in detail the use of flyash in various building procucts

Well, I think the compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) is a promising solution. They are very cheap, soil + 10% cement as a maximum.

The compressive strength is OK, good thermal insulation.

These blocks are being used in many countries like Brazil, India and Sudan.

The only weakness is their durability, but that is also manageable.

Hi Sheela.

I think the alternate material(s) should be new and renewable. Research should be made to find the usage of living thing such as plant. In ancient time there are religious buildings (temples) made of stone bound together with eggwhite. Such that.

While glass might sound like a good aggregate material just for the purpose of getting it out of the landfills and streets, it will not work. Amorphous silica (glass) reacts with the Portland cement in what is called the alkali-silicate reaction, leading to rapid deterioration. It forms a kind of silica gel at the surface of the glass. Very bad stuff.

The use of more than 22 % Flyash as a substitute for Portland cement seem

to solve the Alkali-Silica re-activity problem in concrete. Also using old crushed concrete and adding more Portland cement can help by re-using materials

that tend to accumulate into large ugly piles. Also Asphalt can be recycled.

In dryer climates Adobe bricks ( mud and straw mixed ) are used after they

dry in the sun for a few weeks. They could also be used in a wet climate if they were covered with a thin layer of mortar. They are not ideal for climates prone to

earthquakes.

With climate change regrowing forests is important to keep the Earth a little

cooler.

How about the possibilties of concrete re-use? Concrete structures have been commonly built for several decades and lifetime of many of them is expiring. Although carefeul maintenance and reapir may save some buildings, a great number is being sentenced to demolishion. Why not use the crusher concrete as an aggregate for new concretes?

An innovative company in Mexico has been building low-income housing out of planks of recycled plastic, as was reported also by Reuters news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SqlQuDB2U0

Hi everyone.

There are a lot of research about renewable materials or waste materials. If the material is "green", it's important to respect the first necessity : food. So, the material must be a vegetal waste.

For renewable materials, it's important to consider the local resources of each area. For instance, in Europe, we use hemp or straw. In India and Africa, it's better to use rice husks. All of these can be consider as aggregates.

For the binder, one more time, let's be local ! In France, lime is abondent and energy friendly. In Africa, it's not ordinary and it's better to consider laterite, or shea butter (Malian and burkinabe mosque).

In theses cases, the materials, even if they are solid, are rarely load-bearing. A framework, in wood or steel for instance, is need in most cases.

Many researchers are concentrating their research on alternative building materials like bamboo in place of steel, soil-cement mixtures, wooden scraps etc. Materials that can be renewed should be given top preferences in construction of buildings and many other structures based on feasibility. One can find many historical buildings made of mud, mud stabilized with cement or lime etc., in Arabian country, Germany, India, New Zealand, Australia etc. In India one can find building made with rammed earth stabilized with cement in Bangalore city, constructed under the supervision of Prof.BVV Reddy of IISc Bangalore. Prof. K Ghavami of Brazil has dedicated his life for bamboo as an alternative material in place of steel. You can find good number of papers published in reputed journals in their names. You can also search the papers in Google just by typing their names or the title of papers, if you really want to know about some of the alternative building materials. For example type 'Bamboo as reinforcement in structural concrete elements'. And at last you can also go through one of my paper recently published which is already uploaded in my Account “Bond behaviour of bamboo splints in cement-stabilised rammed earth blocks". Any further queries you are welcome.

Bamboo is a plant with a high tensile strength and are available in an abundant number in Indonesia. In the village which is difficult to get concrete reinforcement steel, bamboo can be chosen as an alternative replacement for concrete reinforcement iron for the columns and walls of the ordinary people building (one story).

I love that Sheela. Alternative sustainable building materials you said? These are numerous and again depend on the type of building we are talking about - residential - bungalow, duplex etc with respect to the building elements - wall, beam, column, slab, foundation, finishes etc as well as their eco-system compatibility. Let me try one material and its brief specification, which is available anywhere in the globe - Strawbale wall :

A) Bungalow or duplex (residential or administrative blocks):

Wall = cement/earth plastered strawbale (inexpensive, strong, effective in micro-climatic condition, i.e. it regulates room temperature naturally; it is a fire- and water-proof element).

Beams, slab and columns = timber, reinforced concrete or composition of the two. Steel structure not recommended.

Foundation = Car tyre + little concrete and timber.

B) All other structural buildings can have plastered strawbale walls as their frame infill.

A trial will convince you.

It is equally advisable to contact your Architects and Engineers in all aspects of the use of any construction material that is suitable for your desired building.

As far as I know, India has a big problem with a lot of waste materials from coal combustion, such is fly ash. There is a lot of possibilities of using fly ash in concrete, as an adition or replacement of cement , or using fly ash instead of cement to make geopolymer concrete. Concrete made of fly ash wich is alkali activated is "green" in terms of not using cement and lowering CO2 emission, and using waste materials. There is a lot of experiments proving that this concrete can be made.

Mudbrick house + renewable energy

old craft in new style http://designwithnature.eu/

I would like to emphasize Deb Dulal Tripura's and Michael Clark's responses - earthen construction (EC) is a rapidly growing construction discipline with many different techniques under its banner, each suited to different locations depending on conditions. Rammed earth might be the most universal of these, although there are always arguments for and against it, as it offers high strength and durability and the ability to be stabilised or reinforced (steel, fibres, geotex etc) if the application requires. It also has a significantly lower embodied energy than some of the more common modern alternatives (a trait shared by all forms of EC) and does not require highly skilled/expensive labour for construction (no experience in forming and pressing bricks is required, for example).

It is a very relevant question and need of the hour to think of alternative building materials for a sustainable development. Many type of compressed earth blocks making use of industrial by products have been developed and also being developed. I have also developed different types of unfired bricks and paver blocks utilizing industrial by-products and other wastes. I am in the process of publishing those as articles for dissemination of knowledge. I have applied for one patent. Other two products are in the process to be filed for patenting. When I publish those articles, I can share with you.

Dr H B Nagaraj

Prof in Civil Engineering, BMS college of Engg., Bangalore-19

I have to contend the earlier comment that fibrous materials are not load-bearing - if they are bound correctly then fibrous materials are more suitable for load-bearing than brittle materials: a simple visualization would be to imagine a bale of straw versus a concrete block in a compression test.

At a certain stage of loading the brittle concrete will break up, whereas the fibrous straw would in fact not decompress any further, and as long as the binding is adequate would maintain it's structurally integrity under far greater loading. However I do accept that there are not many loading scenarios where concrete which complies with building standards will be crushed, however from the engineering perspective it is not true to say fibrous materials are not load bearing, they are however less conducive to forms required for construction.

This is important to consider because fibrous materials such as straw are both simple to implement as building materials, particularly for low-rise structures, and can support heavy loads such as earth roofs, flooring & associated live-loading, or extreme weather loading such as snow.

Thank you very much for all the answers. Could you please show us any such building as a model?

In another question on Researchgate, an answer to alternative to steel

rebar was Basalt Rebar.

I know a few people in Bulgaria are researching the possibilities of straw bales and adobe. Adobe is quite traditional for us, so it is a possibility.

I had envisioned straw bales dipped in concrete mortar on all six sides, and

immediately stacked. If the bale is too long for door ways and windows, just

untie it, shorten it, tie back, dip and stack.

You would need to put in the conduits and electrical boxes while the mortar

is still wet, and also the plumbing pipes too.

the wall would be thick, but the insulation value would be good.

A double row of 8 x 8 x 16 block foundations would be needed to

stack the wet bales on for a foundation to get it above grade.

When you are done, plaster all the walls, apply a color coat.

Bond beams would be needed below the windows and above the

doors all the way around the house, and the cross walls too.

What i think is those material which can't be regenerated in a precise way which are non renewable must be limited in use.. for instant brick are used omnipotent but the extraction of top soil or lime for its fabrication has raised a great issue that those materials took thousand and thousand years to be in that form and we are converting it for our use which can get its form in future. So i guess those material must not be used. We can make up concrete block with voids for wall system. We can make a fine finish and use veener flooring replacing marbles which can't be re regenerate.

I think we should seek for alternative which can be eco friendly and can be good for human.. Research in these area is most.. we also can go with strawbale construction, simple and innovative design methods and tremendous others.. You can check my research paper which can be helpful..

Thesis Guidelines for Embracing Green Building Technology for Susta...

Utilization of locally available building materials can be considered as an ideal solution. Naturally available renewable sources are the best only if the user can access it locally. Hence we won't be able to give a one word answer to each alternative.

Utilization of industrial and agricultural waste materials in the locally should be explored and promoted. Especially in a developing country like India, where labour is much cheaper , promotion of alternate technologies to utilize the waste materials in building construction has a major role in sustainable development.

Some suggestions are:-

Rice husk ash, Fly ash - Alternatives for the partial replacement of cement

straw bale/ fly ash blocks / mud blocks / Lato blocks - Alternate materials for walls

Henno Wolswinkel has written a nice bachelor thesis on how to make an inventory of available waste materials and to slect those materials that can be used in constructing dwellings. The title of his thesis is "Building environmentally friendly by using reuse in Sri Lanka; a research of the impact of reuse to the environment in the Broadlands Hydropower Project area."

Sheela: Lots of example rammed earth structures are described and discussed in a PhD thesis by Paul Jaquin (2008), available here: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2169/

Suggestion: construction and demolition waste to make new materials

As mentioned by previous speaker, utilization of locally available building materials can be considered as an ideal solution. The use of natural fibres as construction and building materials might be a good option for your country. Recently, we developed a new composite structure, i.e. natural fibre reinforced polymer tube encased natural fibre reinforced concrete composite. This composite is composed of an outer flax fibre reinforced polymer tube and a coir fibre reinforced concrete core. It shows good potential to be structural member without the use of steel reinforcement.

Suitable alternative building materials, for any country, are the locally available materials the will adapt to the ecosystem of that region in which they are found.

I prefer to recycle waste material into building construction. Up to now, many studies have been conducted and have shown positive results in those studies. Many findings are kept in theses.

you can find a review of alternative building materials in my paper:

F. Asdrubali, S. Schiavoni, K. V. Horoshenkov: “A review of sustainable materials for acoustic applications”, Building Acoustics 19, (4), 2012, 283-312.

you can download it from Research Gate

Natural fibre reinforced composites, bamboos, precast elements etc. However, it depends upon the geo-climatic region and the local resources and skills.

There are building materials which can be produced from renewable materials, industrial and agricultural wastes. You can find an article “Taffese W. (2012). Low-Cost Eco-Friendly Building Material: A Case Study in Ethiopia, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, V. 62, P. 718–722”. The paper discusses about a building materials manufactured out of natural minerals, renewable materials, industrial and agro-waste. It also recommends other renewable materials which have a great potential to replace natural minerals and/or industrial products. I believe that this paper will provide an idea how you can utilize industrial/agro-waste and renewable materials found in your country to produce building materials.

Recycled concrete waste may be used to build like using recycled paper for books

I found that waste from drinking water treatment plant can be potentially become raw material for building materials. However, this waste contains high aluminium compound that adversely affect to health and environments. In terms of quantity, its amount is increasing annualy due water supply demands.

Lot of Industrial by-products are being generated as a part of industrial development. Few examples of industrial by-products are flyash, granite and marble sludge from cutting and polishing of granite and marble, mine spoil waste and the like. Additionally there is lot waste in building construction and demolition activities. All these kind of wastes or by-products can be utilized in place of sand in certain proportions in the preparation of concrete or unfired bricks/blocks. This would help our society in having a sustainable development without depending on the natural resources. Lot of efforts in this direction is going on by various researchers. I have worked extensively on utilizing industrial by-products in the development of durable and stable building and paver blocks. Publication of the research findings are in the communication stage, and will be shared once they are published.

The use of earth/soil/mud is the solution to this problem especially when they are enhanced with agricultural waste. These materials are abundant and affordable in most countries. In addition the provide environmental, social and economic benefits as well as being sustainable and renewable.

As I have already discussed regarding some of the alternative building materials that are renewable in nature in my earlier conversation. Lot many research work have been carried out to fully utilize the locally available building materials that are both eco-friendly and renewable. Some of the materials that are commonly available are soil, bamboo, coir, jute fibers etc. The use of locally available soil is one of the most important building materials, because it is available in plenty. Of course only soil is quite poor in compressive strength hence stabilizer like cement and lime can be used to gain higher strength. Stabilizing with cement upto 10% (by mass of soil) can produce the strength equivalent to M15 concrete. Some of the leading examples of rammed earth structures are The Great wall of China, Hurioji Temple wall of Japan, a six story building in Weilburg, Germany (1826), etc. But in earthquake prone area reinforcement of the wall and columns of rammed earth buildings are very important, hence bamboo is the only alternative to steel for reinforcement. Bamboo is flexible and posses high elastic value and it also possess quite high tensile strength upto 400MPa (appx.). We are aware that bamboo is renewable and production of bamboo by the local people can enhance the economic growth, job creation, non-dependent to industrial products related to sustainable building and environment etc. Some of the important works related to alternative building materials are:

1.Bond behaviour of bamboo splints in cement- stabilised rammed earth blocks. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, Taylor and Francis, UK; 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19397038.2012.757671.

2.Bamboo as reinforcement in structural concrete elements. K. Ghavami / Cement & Concrete Composites 27 (2005) 637–649

3. Compressive strength characteristics of cement stabilised rammed earth walls. Construction and Building Materials 2007; 21:1971–1976.

4.Performance of compacted cement stabilized soil. Cement and Concrete Composites 2004; 26: 811–20.

5.A review of rammed earth construction (project report), Natural Building Technology Group, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath UK; 2003.

etc.

While many of the responses relate ot sustainability of the alternative building materials, for instance local availability through reuse of structurally viable waste materials, avoiding destruction or overuse of natural raw resources, and reducing economic and environmental costs of imported materials; some of the basic issues include developing local capacity to test and approve structural products such that sustainable products provide good or high life-cycle returns to the users, and as important, clear benefits for the location: for instance some environmental issues may be relative heating-cooling ratings that benefit the location, that require less net fossil fuel-based energy, and that have advantage in terms of water/air pollution during and after the life cycle. We may be sufficiently far along in terms of availabilty of information that these capacities could be built such that materials approved implicitly incorporate considerations relevant to climate change (temperature increase, longer droughts in some areas, tidal and storm effects, and impacts on local materials produced from forests or marine areas).

Dear Prof. S. Abd.El.Aleem, thank you very much for supporting my answers. Hope in this way we can contribute much more to the research world of sustainable engineering in days to come.

Regards.

pit sand  and quarry dust are the alternatives to sand

pebbles and broken stones are alternatives for HBG metal

soil stabilised blocks, fly ash bricks are alternatives tio bricks

I have generally taken the view that it is wrong to say that there are sustainable materials, there are only sustainable uses of materials. My field is cement and concrete, so I will focus on this, but it is possible to use concrete much more efficiently without losing performance. But it requires a bit of thinking or a changing in practice. Reducing the workability of concrete can offer considerable savings in embodied carbon, but requires a bit more effort when placing it. Our problems come from a "business as usual" mindset. A little more thought could make a huge impact.

I concur with view of Leon. Materials are to be used in a sustainable way using Technology/Technologies which are sustainable. Utilization of many industrial by products, construction and demolition waste and agricultural products & also byproducts  incorporated in preparation of alternative building materials like Compressed stabilized blocks or paver blocks would be very beneficial to the society in solving the scarcity of natural resources to a great extent and reducing the environmental problems in the form of air, land and water pollution.

Concerted efforts done by my team of students have yielded very good results, and slowly we are working for the practical implementation of the research findings. Industry partners have show lot of initiative, though not without initial hesitation. Information will be shared once the efforts being presently done take a proper shape. 

In an effort to take the long-term beneficial effect of lime along with cement in the strength gain of compressed stabilized earth blocks , a research work carried out in our laboratory has been reported in the form of a publication. I have attached for the benefit of fellow researchers and engineers.

Good question.. Please share me the best answer might you trust...

Regards…