Did you know that the process of making bricks in kilns releases harmful Particulate Matter (PM) which contributes to air pollution?
When a young Rupam Choudhury realised the ill effects of bricks, he decided to do something about it.
Rupam, along with his friends and co-founders, Mousum Talukdar and David Pratim Gogoi, came up with an alternative.
With their Guwahati-based Zerund Bricks, they developed a patented Plastic Embedded Lightweight Brick using fly ash from thermal power plants, waste plastic, and cement among others.
These bricks are made using electric machines instead of being fired in kilns which eliminates carbon emissions.They provide 10-12% more thermal insulation than regular bricks, ensuring structures stay cooler in summers and warmer in winters.
Additionally, the bricks are 10 percent lighter than conventional bricks—about six conventional bricks make one Zerund brick—which makes them super cost-effective.One of the biggest challenges that the trio faced during brainstorming the idea was figuring out how to process the plastic.
“We tried to melt it first but then we realised that that would result in carbon emissions. Then we tried grinding the plastic into powder but we couldn’t find the right machine. So, we customised one for ourselves where we could powder the plastic,” he says.
After months of trial and error, they were able to crack the code in 2018, the same year they graduated.
Rejecting conventional jobs, they decided to take a leap of faith and started their venture.Since then, they have catered to over 1,000 clients and have sold over 2.5 lakh bricks!
These bricks have been used to build at least 50+ big apartment complexes among other buildings in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.