This Innovative Company Uses Shellfish Waste to Create Concrete, Helping Countries to Ease on Gas Emissions

Researchers have created a concrete kind that retains water by utilising abandoned shells. It is currently fighting flooding and food waste in bike lanes and urban gardens.

The advantage of using abandoned seashells to reduce flooding is that it addresses the effects of conventional building methods and food waste on the climate.

More than one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the building and use of our built environment; the cement sector alone is responsible for roughly 8% of carbon emissions, and food waste contributes at least another 8%.

The climatic toll of both industries is what gave Williams the idea to build the pervious concrete produced from locally-sourced shells, as part of a European Union-funded global research effort. Karl Williams, who oversees the University of Central Lancashire’s Centre for Waste Management, is the founder of this brilliant idea.

“There’s a lot of work going on in the construction industry looking at how you can use alternative materials,” Williams told Daily Maverick, adding that the food and construction industries “don’t really talk to each other.

As “a conduit for both industries to actually think about the waste that they produce, the products they produce, and how they can work together,” he characterises the shell concrete that he began constructing in 2018.

Before selling their catches of coastal shellfish to producers, dealers, or end users directly, fishmongers usually remove the shells. Williams pointed out that by incorporating them into the concrete composition, they are kept out of the landfill.

There’s a cost-saving incentive for the fishmongers, too: Because it currently costs about 100 pounds per metric tonne for a shellfish processor in the UK to dispose of waste shells in a landfill, Williams believes commercial companies are compelled to donate their garbage to be recycled rather than add to the waste stream.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-09-a-new-solution-for-flood-prone-cities-concrete-made-from-shellfish-waste/

Editor’s note: Using abandoned seashells to lessen floods has the benefit of addressing the climatic impact of conventional building practices and food waste.

Description: With the help of abandoned shells, researchers have produced a type of concrete that holds water. Right now, it’s battling urban gardens, bike lanes, and food waste accumulation.

Editor: Thato Mahlangu

Project manager: Do4SA