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Papercrete: An Efficient Use of Waste Paper

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 Recent Trends in Civil Engineering & Technology
ISSN: 2249-8753(online), ISSN: 2321-6476(print)
Volume 5, Issue 3
www.stmjournals.com

Papercrete: An Efficient Use of Waste Paper

YD Shermale*, MB Varma
Department of Applied Mechanics, Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad,
Maharashtra, India

Abstract
These days CO2 emission from construction sites because of cement use is a global issue. In
order to address environmental effects associated with cement manufacturing and constantly
depleting natural resources, there is a need to develop alternative binders to make concrete
industry sustainable. On the other hand, more waste paper ends up in landfills or dump sites
than those recycled due to which all countries are facing a serious challenge in disposing of
waste. If current trends continue, with waste production projected to grow by 5% each year,
landfills would be at full capacity by 2020. Based on the review of large quantity of related
national and international references, the state-of-art of the research and development on
papercrete is presented in this paper. Papercrete is a new composite material using waste
paper as a partial replacement of Portland cement. By using waste paper, papercrete is not
only reducing the amount of cement used but also making environment-friendly building
materials. The mixture proportion, the durability, the basic physical and chemical properties
and the structural performance of papercrete are mainly investigated.

Keywords: Papercrete, binder, waste paper

*Author for Correspondence E-mail: yd.shermale@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION The process of making papercrete includes

Papercrete is a recently developed construction
material which consists of re-pulped paper
fiber with Portland cement or clay. It is
recognized as an environment-friendly
material due to significant recycled content. It
was discovered by Eric Patterson and Mike
McCain independently and they named their
invention Padobe and Fibrous Cement.
soaking waste paper in water overnight so that
the fibers are softened and mixing the soaked
paper until a homogeneous pulp is obtained.
The Portland cement, sand and water are
added to the pulp and blended. The mixture is
then poured into forms to create blocks and the
forms are removed once it is dry. After a few
days, the blocks can be used in construction.

Papercrete is a new composite material using
waste paper as a partial replacement of
Portland cement. By using the waste paper,
papercrete reduces the amount of cement use
as well as it makes environment friendly
building material. Papercrete is an alternative
building material which reduces dead load for
the main structure [1].
Papercrete can be used as mortar in a building
and as a plaster in a papercrete wall. If the
papercrete mix is used as mortar in building a
wall from papercrete blocks, the addition of
more cement will make the mortar stickier,
and it will bond better with the blocks. If the
mix is used as a plaster to cover a papercrete
wall, more cement will help there as well.

The basic constituents of papercrete are water
and any kind of paper (newspaper, cardboard,
glossy magazine stock, advertising brochures,
junk mail or any other type of paper). These
fibers from paper add strength to cement, just
as glass fibers add strength to fiberglass. In the
case of papercrete, these fibers can actually
make up the bulk of the mix, resulting in a
product that is both lightweight and strong.
There are no harmful byproducts or excessive
energy use in the production of papercrete.
Paper fibers hold Portland cement. Papercrete
can be produced using solar energy. The only
power needed is for mixing and pumping
water. A house made from papercrete is safer
than one made from wood as it will not ignite
or burn. It can be easily shaped when cured
and dried. The most important benefit of

RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 54
Papercrete: Use of Waste Paper
papercrete is the reduction of cement in the
mix. Carbon emissions during production, the
total cost and weight are reduced, resulting in
a cheap and lightweight material. Paper fibers
result in excellent heat and sound-insulating
properties.
Papercrete motivates recycling of waste paper,
especially in communities with no recycling
services. It saves landfill space and keeps
paper processing and printing chemicals out of
the water table [2]. It saves trees and other
construction resources, which would have
been used in place of papercrete.
LITERATURE SURVEY
Some information has been published on uses
of papercrete, other information was found on
how people made the material. However, there
is a lack of information on the engineering
properties of the material. A particular mix of
papercrete is not defined so it was difficult to
know what the composition of that mix was in
order to verify the results.
In 2006, Fuller conducted a research to
determine whether or not papercrete has
suitable mechanical and physical properties to
be used as construction material for homes [3].
The parameters that he studied are the
Young’s modulus (E), thermal conductivity
(K), thermal resistance (R), bond
characteristics, and creep behavior. The stress
versus strain graphs suggest that papercrete is
a ductile material that can sustain large
deformations. Cement plays an important role
in the compressive strength and behavior.
Specimens with higher proportion of cement
exhibit larger Young’s modulus.
In 2006, Gallardo et al. focused their
investigation on the viability of using paper
mill sludge as an alternative material [4]. This
can be applied as a partial replacement of fine
aggregates in manufacturing fresh concrete
intended to be used for low cost housing
project. Based on the results of this study, they
concluded that the most suitable mix
proportion is 5 to 10% replacement of paper
sludge to fine aggregates. Any further
percentage replacement higher than 10%
would result in a decrease in both compression
and tensile strength. The reduction of concrete
strength can be attributed to the high water-
RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved
Shermale and Varma
cement-ratio and the absence of silica
compound in paper sludge, which is essential
for bonding and structuring of fresh concrete.
Superplasticizer was only beneficial to
concrete with paper mill sludge in terms of
water and reduction density.
In 2007, H. Yun et al. worked on mechanical
properties of papercrete by taking various
samples and experimenting on them and have
concluded the average compressive strength
which includes 5% paper-cement replacement
ratio was 34 MPa and water-binder ratio
hardly affected compressive strength of
papercrete [5]. According to paper
replacement ratio, compressive strength
affected rapidly. According to them, the
density of papercrete was decreased when the
replacement ratio of waste paper of papercrete
increased. The splitting tensile strength also
decreased by including higher replacement
ratio of waste paper.
In 2008, Gunarto et al. conducted laboratory
study on papercrete making papercrete panel
and cube sample with size 420×420×7 mm and
50×50×50 mm respectively [1]. They took the
volume ratio of paper-cement mixture as 2, 3
and 4 making in two conditions, one without
admixture and the other with 0.2% sugar
admixture. According to their research, the
water absorption was 56.93% at volume ratio
of paper-cement mixture 2 with sugarcane
admixture and the highest absorption at
volume ratio of paper-cement mixture 4 was
84.23%.
In 2011, Malthy and Jegatheeswaran
conducted an experimental study which
investigated the potential use of paper waste
for producing a low-cost and light-weight
composite brick as a building material [2].
They investigated three different mix
proportions of fly-ash-mixed papercrete blocks
with and without sand. In all three bricks, the
compressive strength was more than the
required, i.e., 3.5 MPa. The bricks have water
absorption more than 20%. Papercrete blocks
did not burn with an open flame. They
smoldered like charcoal but if the interior
plaster and exterior stucco is provided on the
bricks, the bricks would not burn at all. The
results showed that the effect of high-level
replacement of paper wastes does not exhibit a
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Volume 5, Issue 3
ISSN: 2249-8753(online), ISSN: 2321-6476(print)

sudden brittle fracture, and it reduces the unit
weight dramatically and introduces a smoother
surface compared to the current conventional
bricks and concrete blocks in the market. They
concluded that papercrete bricks can be used
for walls and as wooden board substitute and
as best alternative for conventional bricks [2].
RAW MATERIAL FOR
PAPERCRETE
Paper
Paper is the main ingredient of papercrete and
so its properties depend on paper’s
microstructure. Wood fragments are
thermometrically or mechanically treated to
dissolve the lignin binder and to free the
cellulose fibers. Paper is then made by
pressing the pulp to remove excess water.
Paper is an anisotropic material and the quality
and strength of its fibers differs depending on
several factors. They are: the type of wood, the
percentage of recycled paper, the amount of
water in the pulp, the way of pulping
(chemical or mechanical) and the speed of
drying. Today, half of the paper fiber utilized
in current production comes from recovered
fibers. Yet, recovered fibers are inherently less
strong and moving the pulp means orienting
the fibers.
and a dispenser. A concrete mixer can also be
used but the tow mixer is more effective.
The tow mixer uses a rear axle from an
automobile to drive the impeller. The
inventors removed the axle from the
automobile, and turned the drive shaft to the
vertical position. A hole was cut into the
bottom of a livestock tank and the tank was
mounted so that the drive shaft extended
through the hole. Then the hole was sealed and
a lawn mower blade was mounted on the drive
shaft.
A hitch was assembled to the axle, so the
mixer could be pulled behind a truck. When
the mixer is pulled behind the truck, the
wheels turn the drive shaft which in turn
moves the blade which mixes the papercrete.
The tow mixer created an inexpensive way to
mix large batches of papercrete. This invention
is impractical for an industrial setting.

Water-Proofing Admixtures
Paper is the major ingredient in papercrete mix
and it is a fully water-absorbable material.
Hence, to minimize water absorption, water-
proofing admixtures were used as one of the
additives in papercrete mix. Generally, the
water-proofing admixtures consist of two
Fig. 1: Tow Mixer.
approaches, namely internally and externally.
Internal and external water proofing
admixtures are used by means of mix
optimization. The internal water proofing
admixtures are “Conplast WP 90,” “Powder
Waterproof 105” and “Styrene Butadiene
Rubber (SBR)” latex polymer and external
waterproofing admixtures are “Zycosil” and
“Prime seal 604” with “Rain coat.”

Tow Mixer
The easiest way to make papercrete is with a
special mixer designed for the purpose called
the Tow Mixer (Figure 1) which can be made
inexpensively in one day from easily available
parts, and it combines the functions of a mixer Fig. 2: Soaking of Newspaper.

RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 56
Papercrete: Use of Waste Paper
Manufacture of Papercrete Bricks
Generation of Pulp for Papercrete Bricks
The papers which were collected could not be
used directly. Before mixing with other
ingredients, papers were converted into slurry
form, known as pulp. First the pins, threads
and other materials were removed. Then the
papers were torn into small pieces and all the
torn pieces of paper were immersed in water
(Figure 2). The papers were kept in water for 3
to 5 days, and they soon degraded into a paste
like form.
After that period, the papers were taken out
from water tank and shredded into little pieces.
Using the small flavor machine, the shredded
papers were converted into pulp. The
generated paper pulp is shown in Figure 3. The
paper pulp had residual water in itself, and it
was not good enough for mixing the
ingredients. So the required amount of water
was added at the time of mixing.
Fig. 3: Paper Pulp.
Fig. 4: Mixing of Ingredients.
Casting of Specimen for Papercrete Bricks
After paper pulp was generated, first dry
ingredients were taken out on the weight basis
RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved
Shermale and Varma
(Figure 4) and all the dry mixes were mixed
uniformly (Figure 5). Then, these dry mixes
were sprinkled over the required amount of
paper pulp and mixed uniformly manually.
After mixing, the mixes were placed in the
mold for 30 min. The bricks were molded
manually by hand, i.e., hand molding (Figure
5). And these bricks were ground-molded
bricks. Before mixing, the wooden mold was
ready for casting the brick specimen. Machine
oil was applied to the inner surfaces of mold
for easy removing of mold and without
causing any damage to the specimen. The size
of the specimen was 230×110×75 mm.
Fig. 5: Molding of Brick.
The specimen was kept on the vibrating table.
Papercrete fibrous mix was poured into the
mold by three layers and fully compacted
mechanically. Casting was completed and then
the specimen was laid on the laying table.
After 15 min, the mold was removed carefully
from the specimen (Figure 6).
Fig. 6: Remolding of Brick.
After 28 days of air drying, i.e., on hearing the
metallic sound when striking out the brick
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Recent Trends In Civil Engineering & Technology
Volume 5, Issue 3
ISSN: 2249-8753(online), ISSN: 2321-6476(print)
surface, the specimen was ready for testing
(Figure 7).
Fig. 7: Dry Papercrete Brick.
PROPERTIES OF PAPERCRETE
Compressive Strength
Various researchers have carried out research
test on papercrete. The study by Kelly Hart
shows the compressive strength of papercrete
to be 1.7 MPa. Fuller shows the compressive
strength of papercrete to be in the range 0.96–
1.1 MPa. According to Kokkinos in TU Delft
(Netherland), the average compressive
strength of papercrete cube was 1.12 MPa and
the maximum compressive strength was
2.36 MPa.
Weight and Density
Titzman carried out a research in 2006
regarding the weight density of papercrete;
according to his research, the density of the
material increased when the percentage of
cement in the mixture increased but when the
amount of the paper in the mixture increased,
the density decreased [6]. Further research by
Yung et al. showed that the density of
papercrete was decreased when the
replacement ratio of waste paper of papercrete
increased [5]. When paper replacement ratio
was 5%, density was measured as 1.88 g/cm³
(1800 kg/m3), and it was reduced to 15 and
22%, respectively by increasing paper ratio to
10 and 15%.
Tensile Strength
Study on tensile strength carried out by
Titzman showed the tensile strength was very
low. The maximum and minimum tensile
strength of the papercrete was 28.3 and 0.195
and 0.052 MPa respectively [6].
RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved
Thermal Conductivity and Insulation
Barry Fuller carried out research in thermal
conductivity and showed the R-value of
papercrete is in between 2.0 and 3.0 per inch
(0.078–0.12 per mm) with thickness in walls
12–16 in (304.8–406.4 mm) in one or two
story house [3]. Titzman in his research
showed thermal conductivity of papercrete
was 0.10 W/(m·K) and that of concrete was
between 1.25 and 1.75 W/(m·K) [7].
Papercrete has much lower thermal
conductivity than concrete; therefore, its
insulation value is much higher.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Lack of official guidelines and standard
procedure describing the method of
producing papercrete.
2. Papercrete is far lighter a material than
concrete or wood and has good water
absorption and insulation capacity, less
shrinkage and is environment friendly, has
high strength to weight ratio.
3. Although this area requires significant
amount of research, but papercrete can
ideally be used for reduction in dead
weight of structural elements in cases
where there are no special loads acting on
the element. Also, about 55% of paper
waste around the globe still does not get
recycled and is directly disposed of and a
considerable portion of it can be used for
manufacturing papercrete. Future research
on improving its tensile strength can open
up the possibilities of papercrete using it
as a construction worldwide.
FUTURE SCOPE
There is a lot of scope for further research and
meaningful work in this endeavor. Some of
these include the study of:
1. The effect of supplementary cementitious
materials like metakoline, blast furnace
slag, ground granulated blast furnace slag,
etc., on the strength and durability of light
weight papercrete can be rewarding.
2. The strength and durability of other
papercrete building elements like wall
panels, floor slabs, etc., are to be studied.
3. The structural behavior of reinforced
papercrete structural members like beams,
slabs, etc., needs to be investigated in
depth.
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 Papercrete: Use of Waste Paper
4. The performance of infilled frame with
papercrete bricks under earthquake is to be
studied further with respect to ductility
and other performances with more number
of specimens and to be validated
analytically also.
REFERENCES
1. Gunarto A, Satyarno I, Tjokrodimuljo K.
Newsprint Paper Waste Exploiting for
Papercrete Panel. Institute of Research
Center, Gadjah Mada University. 2008.
2. Malthy R, Jegatheeswaran D. Comparative
study on papercrete bricks with
conventional bricks. ICI Journal. January–
March 2011.
3. Fuller B, Fafitis A, Santamaria. Structural
properties of a new material made of
waste paper. Building Integrated Solution,
ASCE. 2006.
4. Gallardo RS, Adajar MA. Structural
performance of concrete with paper sludge
as fine aggregates partial replacement
enhanced with admixtures. Symposium on
Infrastructure Development and the
Environment. 2006.
RTCET (2015) 54-59 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved
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Shermale and Varma
5. Yun H, Jung H, Choi C. Mechanical
properties of papercrete containing waste
paper. Architectural Institute of Korea. 18
TH International Conference on
Composite Materials. 2007.
6. Titzman LC. Analysis of low cost building
material for the mix alco process.
Dissertation.Texas A & M University.
2006.
7. Mohammed BS. Papercrete as infill
materials for composite wall system.
European Journal of Scientific Research.
2009; 34(4): 455p.
Cite this Article
Shermale YD, Varma MB. Papercrete:
An efficient use of waste paper. Recent
Trends in Civil Engineering &
Technology. 2015; 2(3): 54–59p.
Page 59