Post-graduate students from Imperial College London, have successfully developed a composite material made from desert sand, that could cause the construction industry to evolve from detrimental to sustainable for the environment.
If there’s anything Algeria will never run out of, it’s probably desert sand. Imperial College London students Matteo Maccario, Carolyn Tam, Hamza Oza and Saki Maruyami have developed a sustainable, biodegradable & reusable alternative named Material Finite. quoting their website:
Source: www.materialfinite.com
Finite, a newly developed material composite, opens new opportunities to make use of desert sand and other abundant fine powders that traditionally have no use. Finite can form these fine powders into structures that have the same strength as traditional housing bricks and residential concrete.
One must keep in mind that the sand usually used in the production of concrete is excavated and thus extremely damaging to the environment, often causing wildlife to die in the process. It is an environmental crisis most people haven’t heard of.
Potentially, such an alternative could be exported to countries north of Algeria.