Mokhammad Fajar Pradipta1,*, Rani Agustina Wulandari2
1Department of Chemistry, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
*Coresponding Author: fajar@ugm.ac.id
Abstract. Disposal of a large quantity of plastic bottles has emerged as an important environmental challenge, and its recycling is facing a big problem due to non-degradable nature. Due to plastic does not decompose biologically, the amount of plastic waste in our surroundings is steadily increasing. Plastic waste which is increasing day by day becomes an eyesore and in turn pollutes the environment, especially in high mountain villages where no garbage collection system exists such as in Sepanjang Village, Tawangmangu Sub-District, Karanganyar Regency. A large amount of plastic is being brought into the tourist trekking regions and is discarded or burned which leads to the contamination of the environment and air. Hence, these waste plastics are to be effectively utilized. The proposed sand bricks which are made up by adding plastic bottle waste in crush form in sand bricks may help to reuse the plastic bottle waste as one of the additives material of bricks, and to help the disposal problem of plastic waste. This alternatively saves the quanta of sand/clay that has to be taken away from the precious river beds/mines. The plastic waste is naturally available in surplus quantity, and hence the cost factor comes down. Two specimens of bricks, one with chopped plastic and cement; another with sand and waste plastic after heating at 200 °C. The sand-plastic bricks are lightweight and present a waxy surface. The results of sand plastic bricks are compared with those of traditional local bricks. It is observed that sand plastic bricks have low water absorption, low apparent porosity and high compressing strength.
Keywords: Plastic Waste, Brick, Tawangmangu Sub-District, Community Active Participation
