This surprising building material is strong, cheap, and sustainable– www.sciencedaily.com

This surprising building material is strong, cheap, and sustainable– www.sciencedaily.com
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Excerpt:

Engineers in Australia have developed a new building material with about one quarter of concrete’s carbon footprint, while reducing waste going to landfill.

This innovative material, called cardboard-confined rammed earth, is composed entirely of cardboard, water and soil – making it reusable and recyclable.

In Australia alone, more than 2.2 million tons of cardboard and paper are sent to landfill each year. Meanwhile, cement and concrete production account for about 8% of annual global emissions.

Cardboard has previously been used in temporary structures and disaster shelters, such as Shigeru Ban’s iconic Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Inspired by such designs, the RMIT University team has, for the first time, combined the durability of rammed earth with the versatility of cardboard.