More than 1,500 tonnes of waste sludge are produced each day from both water and sewage treatment facilitates in Hong Kong. Diverting biowastes away from landfill sites would only lengthen the service time of existing sites. In relation to this, utilization of biowastes and coal combustion residues to produce environmentally friendly construction materials is deemed a win-win strategy. The current study is to investigate the feasibility of using different waste sludge and coal combustion residuals in the concrete block production. The compressive strength of the eco-concrete blocks produced by waterworks sludge is in compliance with the standard specifications for paving blocks in Hong Kong. The environmental and toxicological impacts of the final products were then evaluated according to the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP).

 

Dr. Tsang Yiu Fai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science and Environmental Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). He received his BEng and PhD in Environmental Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He further worked as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to joining EdUHK, he was a Research Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at PolyU. His research interests include biological wastewater treatment, microbial CO2 fixation, and pharmaceuticals & personal care products (PPCPs) in sewage treatment plants.