While the Covid-19 pandemic was bad enough, a darker side to it was the tonnes of PPE (personal protective equipment) generated — almost 56,000 tonnes in one year, as per data by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This is in addition to the PPE waste hospitals and healthcare providers generate as part of their regular operations.

The medical waste, including PPE kits, surgical masks among others, made of polypropylene plastic, puts a tremendous strain on waste management systems.

Till students of the Sona College of Technology, Salem, decided to do something about it. A team of civil engineering students devised a method to turn hospital PPE waste into bricks that do not use any cement. Not only do these poly bricks have a three-time higher compressive strength compared to the common red bricks, they are much lighter and can be produced in a far shorter time, says a note from the college.

By showcasing a working model for creating poly bricks, the student team has emerged winners from among 25 teams that participated in the All India Council for Technical Education Smart India Hackathon held at Jaipur, bagging ₹One lakh prize.

THe Process

The poly brick making process starts by sterilising PPE kits with ultraviolet rays, subjecting it to heat at 160oC, adding sand aggregates and casting the polypropylene mass into bricks. Dr N Karuppasamy, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Sona College, who mentored the team says that a patent application has been filed for this technology.

When the five-member student team set out to look for the most innovative method to manage several thousand tonnes of waste generated by discarded PPE kits in hospitals, their lead mentor Dr R Malathy, Dean (R&D) and Professor of Civil Engineering, added an additional dimension of “creating wealth from this hazardous waste.”

The Sona team — Aravind Kumar, Kamalesh JB, Dharani Raj U, Adhavan P and Harshini EK — found this solution while participating in a nation-wide competition to find ‘an effective method for tackling improper disposal of Covid personal protection equipment which leads to an additional strain on the city authorities grappling with single-use plastic menace.’

Ready for Technology Transfer

Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman, Sona Group of Educational Institutions, says, “Working in a group, the students came up with a solution through innovative and quick thinking. The technology is now available to hospital chains and other organisations interested in technology transfer to help tackle PPE waste and also reduce poisonous emissions.”

These eco-friendly bricks can be used as regular bricks for walls and also as paver blocks instead of red bricks — thereby reducing plastic waste as well as pollution caused during cement production. The poly bricks have good cement adhesion and can be plastered with cement.

While cement use is ubiquitous in construction, manufacture of poly bricks and paver blocks from PPE waste with absolutely zero water or cement promotes a reduction in water wastage, harmful emissions, as well as contamination of water by microplastics.

Established in 1997, the Sona College of Technology offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes in the areas of engineering with specialisations in Mechatronics, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Robotics Process Automation, Data Science, Computer Systems and Design, and Healthcare Analytics, in addition to foundational areas like Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, and Fashion Technology, among others. The full-time faculty and researchers include over 150 doctorates, Fullbright and Chevening scholars. NIRF-ranked Sona College is an autonomous institution under Anna University and is part of the Sona Group of Education Institutions. The college has 36 R&D laboratories for cutting-edge research and through which it strives to bring in new-age skills.

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