Critical review on substitution of natural ingredients with the dimensional stone cutting waste in making of building products

Abstract

This paper critically reviews available literature on the utilization of different types of non-metallic minerals obtained from the mining wastes. India is endowed with an inexhaustible mineral resource in the form of coal mines, limestone, sandstone, iron ore, bauxite, and manganese to name a few. The mining industry in India especially the dimensional stone mining is progressing by leaps and bounds but at the same time it is also generating lot of wastes which goes for landfill creating significant environmental issues.. Huge quantities of mining wastes are produced during various operations such as exploration, extraction, processing, cutting, sculpting and polishing. The construction industry too adds to the environment burden ensuing from use of concrete, mortar that uses cement as binder and energy intensive masonry units such as burnt clay bricks. Production of all these construction materials leads to green-house gas (GHG) emissions, depletion of natural resources by extraction of fertile soil, change in land use, dredging of river beds for natural river sand used in mortar and concrete. A substantially viable solution to this looming problem is in tapping the prospects of diverting these wastes as full or fractional replacement of conventional ingredients in making of construction units. This manuscript presents a comprehensive review of the different forms of dimensional stone cutting waste (DSCW) used in manufacturing of building products such as masonry items as brick, blocks, concrete, mortar followed by review of the efficacy of these end products.