RMUTT pioneers its innovative process of creating construction materials from public leftovers

The Department of Eco-friendly Material Research and Development, Rajamangala University of Technology, Thanyaburi (RMUTT) has collaborated with Mr. Prachum Khumputh and Tawatchai Ariyasutthi in a newly released “Innovest”:  The innovative process of better waste management solution” to help design and create reusable construction materials for furnishing and décor.

Mr. Prachum Khumput stated that innovest or the innovative process of better waste management solution” could help design and create construction materials from countless numbers of solid wastes generated by households including plastic bottles, plastic bags, as well as foam or foam scrap and paper scrap before converting them into furniture and decors. Needless to say, these waste materials could effortlessly be grounded and shredded into a smaller and more managerial form with general market grinder and shredder machines. Generally, the four mentioned types of solid wastes are light with their own ductility and yet they were ready to be used as parts of making construction materials as zero waste products according to the 3Rs principle of solid waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle.  

The production will be based on the principle of eco-friendliness by emphasizing on using solid waste which has been finely-grinded instead of applying the aggregated one in order to save the production cost. Concerning financial opportunities, aggregated solid waste will be more worthy for production particularly when the technology being used for creating the concrete (hydration reaction between mortar and concrete mortar bonding agent) composed with finely grinded solid waste could produce light weight, and strong concrete products such as concrete block, paving block, interlocking brick, and cement board and yet ceiling board could also be yielded from gypsum and water as bonding agent. Last but not least, the compressed fiber made for furniture will be produced by heat compression process using polymers or formaldehyde free adhesive and thus with this appropriate method of production,  these products have met the requirements according to the TISI standard and have been available to be of real use.

Mr. Tawatchai Ariyasuthi also added, “This initial solid waste management process gives its first importance to the use of valueless solid waste which has been generated daily and very difficult to make disposals. Unfortunately, when these waste products have been dumped for a long period of time without right ways of disposal, various ways of pollution could occur to the environment. To help save the environment, the solid waste products would initially be disintegrated into small portions to create more space for disposal and then being compressed with different types of bonding agents according to their various types of applications including construction, decoration, or building furniture. Concerning environmental their friendly issues, after testing for their solubility and fractionation, it was found that the materials did not contain any heavy metal or Radon gas which could be one of the reasons that leads to cancer. It may perhaps now be trusted that this ‘Innovest solid waste management process” would be regarded as a way to help save the environment and meet regulations and standards of Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, Ministry of Environment and Thailand 4.0 national economic policy.              

“Application of “Innovest” solid waste management at present will be focusing on producing construction materials and decors for condos, houses, and other types of buildings not to mention how it could be applied to make furniture that is eco-friendly and energy-sustainable. It could be said that the most apparent benefits of these materials are their light weight with soundproof and heatproof qualities when compared to general products available in the market. Additionally, these solid waste could be reused almost 100% through low cost and simple use equipment and machines by meeting the requirements of TIS (Thailand Industrial Standard) and could be produced commercially and registered in the government intellectual property”, Mr. Prachum told. 

The “Innovest” has been guaranteed by winning the bronze medal in “The 70th International Trade Fair Ideas Inventions New Products (iENA2018) Nurnberg, Germany as well as a special prize at The 1ST Institute Inventors and Researchers in I.R.IRAN (FIRI Award) – The Best Invention, Iran. Currently. Innovest has already registered for Thailand intellectual property. For local community and SMEs, further information for commercial use can be reached at the Department of Eco-friendly Material Research and Development, Tel. 0-2549-3410.