The CSIR–National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST) has developed a process that converts industrial waste—especially spent foundry sand—into durable building materials such as bricks, paving tiles and interlocking blocks, offering a circular alternative to landfill disposal.
The institute’s method uses a simple cement-bonded compression-moulding route, enabling faster, room-temperature shaping with minimal resource inputs. Technology know-how has already been transferred to a Coimbatore-based company for commercial rollout, signalling near-term scalability beyond pilot lines.
Early deployments point to meaningful diversion of waste streams: in partnership with a private producer, a unit has been set up to make around 5,000 bricks a day using roughly 30 tonnes of spent moulding sand collected from foundries across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The products meet prescribed strength benchmarks for common burnt-clay bricks (IS 1077), and the recipe avoids tapping natural raw materials like clay and gravel, easing pressure on quarries. Colour-finished variants are also feasible for architectural use, the institute said.
Officials underscored the technology’s fit for public housing and urban-renewal projects where cost, speed and sustainability are paramount. By turning waste into building stock, the platform advances India’s resource-efficiency goals while giving foundries a compliant, value-adding disposal pathway—an approach the institute plans to replicate with other industrial residues in the months ahead.
