Marble and Granite Waste: Characterization and Utilization in Concrete Bricks

Abstract

M arble and granite industry has grown significantly in the last decades with the privatization trend in the early 1990s, and the flourishing construction industry in Egypt. Accordingly, the amount of mining and processing waste has increased. Stone waste is generally a highly polluting waste due to both its highly alkaline nature, and its manufacturing and processing techniques, which impose a health threat to the surroundings. Shaq Al-Thuban industrial cluster, the largest marble and granite industrial cluster in Egypt is imposing an alarming threat to the surrounding communities, Zahraa El-Maadi residential area, and the ecology of the neighboring Wadi Degla protectorate. The objective of this paper is to utilize marble and granite waste of different sizes in the manufacturing of concrete bricks, with full replacement of conventional coarse and fine aggregates with marble waste scrapes and slurry powder of content up to 40%. The produced bricks are tested for physical and mechanical properties according to the requirements of the American Standards for Testing Materials (ASTM) and the Egyptian Code. The test results revealed that the recycled products have physical and mechanical properties that qualify them for use in the building sector, where all cement brick samples tested in this study comply with the Egyptian code requirement for structural bricks, with granite slurry having a positive effect on cement brick samples that reach its optimum at 10% slurry incorporation.