Green Bricks

US brick manufacturer, Boral, has released a white paper entitled "Building With Brick: Sustainable and Energy Efficient: A White Paper on Performance Benefits of One of Man's Oldest Building Materials." The paper cites a 4000-year old arch in the Middle East made of brick that still stands today. "All too often, newly invented materials are not only disproportionately expensive, but also lack a time-tested track record that can provide reassurance about their expected performance,” the paper read. Brick’s durability - it's not compromised by decay- contributes to its overall long life with little maintenance. “In fact, because of its durability, the US National Institute for Standards and Technology has rated brick masonry as having a 100-year lifespan,” the report read. By all environmental impact standards, brick is one of the best choices for sustainable eco-friendly construction. Why? 'The efficiency of the manufacturing process, use of alternative energy sources, recycled content, minimized waste and efficiency of transportation because clay and shale used to make brick can be found almost everywhere in the world and they are easily removed from the ground without the damaging effects that accompany the mining of more elusive resources,' the report stated.
One of the notable qualities of brick is that very little waste is produced in the manufacturing and building process because the materials are inherently recyclable “A kilo of clay material yields almost a kilo of brick," states the report. "Any materials that are left over after one run of bricks has been fired can simply be re-mixed into the next run.” Additionally, leftover brick material on the construction site can be recycled in a number of ways, be it crushed for landscaping, reused for other projects or added to concrete aggregate.