Eco-Friendly Concrete Made by UP Students Bags International…

Rapid urbanization takes its toll on nature and at the rate we’re going, the need to come up with more sustainable development plans is becoming more and more apparent. To address this, a group of civil engineering students from the University of the Philippines developed an environment-friendly concrete made from recycled, locally sourced materials—and they just won first prize at an international competition for it.

Organized by the American Concrete Institute, the eco-concrete competition held in Canada on March 24 was joined by student researchers all over the globe.

“Rapid global urbanization boosts the demand for concrete at an unprecedented rate. This means that the environmental footprint of concrete production can no longer be ignored,” said the state university in a post on its website announcing the recognition.

The award-winning entry from Angelica Anne Munar, Ryan Christopher Ramelo, Paulo Santos, and Alexis Declaro is made with recycled materials such as fly ash (fine powder that’s a by-product of burning pulverized coal in power-generating plants) and waste glass, along with a common type of rock called pozzolanic tuff.

“The conventional concrete mix, which consists only of cement, gravel, sand, and water, must be revisited to achieve environmental sustainability in the decision-making process,” the university further added.

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This story originally appeared on Spot.ph.

* Minor edits have been made by the Entrepreneur.com.ph editors.