Country’s 'first' eco-friendly brick kiln in Thakurgaon

Manufacturing of bricks is usually associated with several hazardous activities such as damaging the agricultural land by cutting down the top soil or burning woods, tires and rubber, which are quite harmful for the environment.

However, it is not the case with a brick kiln in Thakurgaon. There, modern machinery is being used to make eco-friendly bricks from fly ash, cement, sand and stone chips.

The Bablu Super Bricks Industry Limited is a sister concern of Razzak Group in Parpugi village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila. The authorities concerned claim that this is the first factory in the country to make bricks with fly ash.

While visiting the factory on Monday, Prothom Alo correspondent found bricks are being manufactured in a computer controlled machine called “Vibro Cavity”. Fly ash, sand, cement and stone chips are being mixed in a certain ratio in this machine. And then, pressure is applied to made the bricks. There is no need to burn the bricks at all.

Habibul Islam, chairman of the Razzak Group said, “There is no alternative to eco-friendly bricks to save the environment. From this vision, I started this factory.”

According to the officials and the staff of the company, Habibul has to travel abroad a lot for business related works and during one such trip he first noticed the eco-friendly bricks. Later, he planned for making eco-friendly bricks in the country. He went for manufacturing on 19 November last year.

In this factory, every brick is manufactured by using 40 per cent of fly ash, 4 per cent of sand, 15 per cent of cement and 5 per cent of stone chips. The vibro cavity machine can make 8,000-20,000 bricks every eight hours.

Joynal Abedin, a resident of Hajipara area of Thakurgaon city, has recently used these eco-friendly bricks for the construction of his house.

He said these eco-friendly bricks are cost-effective and enhances the beauty of the houses too.

Shaharul Alam Mondal, executive engineer of the local government engineering department (LGED) of Thakurgaon, said, “I believe this initiative will play a fundamental role in implementing the government's plan to use eco-friendly bricks instead of bricks made of burnt mud. I do not know any other factory in the country is using fly ash in producing bricks.”