Sustainable bricks

There is a new design for bricks that are eco-friendly. These new bricks are created by combining sand, bacteria, calcium chloride, and urea (pee). Normal clay bricks are very energy-intensive, "producing more pollution than global air travel each year." In order to cook the clay bricks at a hot enough temperature, about 400 trees are burnt to produce 25,000 bricks. It is obvious that clay bricks are harming our environment.

These new 'Better Bricks' can fix this problem. The process for making these Better Bricks is called microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP). How it works- the sand is shaped into a cube, then add the bacteria solution and the grains of sand stick together from the chemical reaction. These Better Bricks look like sandstone but, if made correctly, they can be as strong as a normal fired-clay brick. These Better Bricks are still being tested, but if they were to replace all clay bricks, the world would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 800 million tons a year.

I think these Better Bricks are a great idea. The world is running out of natural resources, but the materials used for these bricks are almost limitless. I hope within a few years that the Better Bricks are being used for building purposes.

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20100512/the-better-brick-2010-next-generation-winner