Life Cycle of a Brick

Extraction

This involves loss of land for a clay pit; detrimental impacts upon plants and animals (noise, land clearance, habitat destruction); impacts on water flow (affecting vegetation more widely, water pollution); loss of soils; noise; dust; and environmental remediation when all the clay is taken. There is also the energy used (fossil fuels) to power (and make) the extraction equipment and to transport raw materials to the brick-making plant.

Manufacture

This involves crushing and mixing (energy use); kiln-firing at 1000°C or more (high energy use; air pollution from flue gases); use and pollution of water/steam in manufacture; solid and liquid wastes that have to go somewhere.

Construction

This occurs after the bricks are delivered to the site with issues of energy use, air pollution (CO₂) and packaging/delivery issues. On-site, the same issues arise again as bricks are laid using human energy as well as fossil fuels for cement mixers-be it petrol or electricity-mainly created by burning coal at the power plant. There are also issues of noise and health, plus the related life-cycle issues for the sand, cement, lime and water used in the mortar. Water and soil pollution is commonly created from wastes and acid cleaning of brickwork.

Use

When in use, bricks are durable and require low maintenance. They are naturally a ‘long life’ product (whilst un-painted!).

Demolition

This involves noise, dust, energy use (air pollution from CO₂), and production of solid wastes with impacts on soil and water. If the bricks are disposed of as a landfill, then this is the last stage of ‘cradle-to-grave’. 

• Re-use means cleaning and using them again elsewhere-‘cradle-to-cradle’.
• Recycling occurs if the bricks are crushed and used again after processing (energy use, noise, dust, CO₂ production, etc). This is ‘down-cycling, which is better than wasting them at the tip but not as good as re-use.
• Disposal is wasting a potential resource at the tip.

So you can see that even a brick can have quite an eventful life, with lots of environmental impacts along the way!
In the photo below we have 5 no. Australian so-called convict bricks which came out of a row 6 no. terraces in Rozelle NSW Australia and were not the bricks first use. Shapes imprinted are- boomerang, heart, diamond, heart, diamond. Isn’t that fascinating? Potentially the life cycle of these bricks is circa 200 years.

 

Como Building P/L, Michael Como provides in SYDNEY, an NSW Building Regulations Consultancy service that comprises, Interpretation of NSW legislation relevant to the construction of Class 1 and 10; Issuing: Complying Development Certificates (CDC), Construction Certificates (CC) [after a local council has approved a development], Occupation certificates (OC), Compliance Certificates, NCC Building Code Australia Reports. Engagement for the certification work is on a contract basis.

Also, a pre-purchase property inspection or building inspection by Michael Como may empower you with knowledge about the condition of a property currently or before you buy it and help you avoid future problems and unexpected costs. However, this service can only be conducted if the insurer is on-side, and currently, they are not and as a result, we do not conduct it.

Michael Como is Your Custom Home Builder in Sydney with over 46 years of construction experience, a Master Craftsman sharing innovative Restoration/renovation Ideas. Licensed since 1988. At this stage, I will only carry out building work at a contracted agreed hourly rate.

Let your imagination soar as you enjoy Building Green Homes or Straw houses or Hemp Homes or Heritage Style Restoration or Bathroom renovations or UHR or Digital twin or Sealing…. Etc.

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