Australian researchers have discovered that adding cigarette butts to clay in bricks makes them lighter, with better thermal insulation, and uses up to 60% less energy to produce, while 4.5 trillion butts are discarded worldwide each year.

Written by Flavia Marinho

Published on 22/04/2026 at 18:45

Seja o primeiro a reagir!

Researchers from RMIT University in Australia added only 1% of cigarette butts to clay and the brick became lighter, isolated heat better, and used up to 60% less energy to be manufactured

Every year, smokers around the world discard approximately 4.5 trillion cigarette butts, making them the most commonly found litter on beaches, sidewalks, and storm drains worldwide. Each butt contains over 7,000 chemical substances, including heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium.

When thrown on the ground, a single cigarette butt can contaminate up to 40 liters of water; until now, no one knew what to do with this waste on a global scale.

Until Professor Abbas Mohajerani from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, had an idea that seems absurd: to embed the butts inside bricks, and it worked.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The experiment: 1% of butts changes everything

Mohajerani’s team added crushed butts to the clay used in brick manufacturing.

The proportion was minimal: only 1% of the total volume.

The bricks were fired in the kiln like any conventional brick.

The results surprised the researchers.

The bricks with butts were lighter than the normal ones because the organic material from the cigarette evaporates during firing, leaving micropores in the structure.

These pores also improved thermal insulation because the air trapped inside them acts as a barrier against heat.

But the most important discovery was another.

The kiln used up to 58% less energy to fire the bricks with butts.

This is because the organic material from the cigarette serves as additional fuel during burning, reducing gas consumption.

Wall of ecological bricks showing natural texture — *Wall built with ecological bricks showing natural texture*

Toxic substances are trapped inside the brick

The major concern was obvious: what about the toxic chemicals from the cigarette?

Tests showed that the high temperatures of the kiln, above 1,000 degrees Celsius, destroy most of the organic substances.

The heavy metals that survive are encapsulated within the ceramic structure of the brick.

In other words, they remain trapped. They do not leak into the environment.

The bricks passed leaching tests, which measure whether toxic substances escape from the material when exposed to water.

According to Mohajerani, the vitrification process of clay in the oven creates a kind of chemical prison for the contaminants.

The scale problem: how to collect trillions of butts

If the technology works, why are we not yet building with cigarette bricks?

The biggest challenge is logistical.

Collecting, transporting, and processing billions of butts requires an infrastructure that does not yet exist.

Selective collection programs for cigarette butts are rare and poorly organized in most countries.

The American company TerraCycle already operates butt recycling programs in some countries, but the scale is still small.

For the idea to work globally, it would be necessary to create collection points in bars, restaurants, offices, and public spaces.

The numbers that add up

4.5 trillion butts discarded per year worldwide
1% of butts in the mix already changes the properties of the brick
58% less energy in burning
Lighter brick with better thermal insulation
Heavy metals encapsulated in the ceramic after burning at 1,000 degrees

If only 2.5% of the world’s brick production incorporated 1% of butts, the entire annual production of cigarette waste would be absorbed.

And the additional cost would be close to zero, since the material is literally waste that today goes to landfills or the ocean.

An idea too simple to be ignored

The technology has not yet reached the market commercially.

There is a lack of regulations, long-term testing, and investment in the collection chain.

But science has already proven that it works.

One of the planet’s biggest pollutants can become a building material more efficient than the original.

And as if the trash we throw on the ground could, literally, become the wall of the next house.

0 Comentários

Mais recente

Mais antigos Mais votado

Feedbacks

Visualizar todos comentários

Australian researchers have discovered that adding cigarette butts to clay in bricks makes them lighter, with better thermal insulation, and uses up to 60% less energy to produce, while 4.5 trillion butts are discarded worldwide each year.

Researchers from RMIT University in Australia added only 1% of cigarette butts to clay and the brick became lighter, isolated heat better, and used up to 60% less energy to be manufactured

The experiment: 1% of butts changes everything

Toxic substances are trapped inside the brick

The scale problem: how to collect trillions of butts

The numbers that add up

An idea too simple to be ignored

While in Brazil a 10-story building takes 2 years to complete, in China a company stacks pre-fabricated modules and raises the entire building in just 28 hours and 45 minutes.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

BRICS is preparing a payment system inspired by the Brazilian PIX that will allow direct transactions between countries using national digital currencies without relying on the dollar or Western banks as intermediaries.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

A factory video in India goes viral showing workers wearing helmets with cameras to train an artificial intelligence that will eventually replace these same employees on the production lines.

In the South Atlantic, three isolated volcanic islands cause the wind to draw perfect spirals visible from space: a rare phenomenon called von Kármán vortex streets forms symmetrical patterns behind the peaks of the South Sandwich Islands and was recorded by the NOAA-20 satellite in 2025.

Created to cling to ships like a lamprey, the new U.S. underwater drone sleeps on the ocean floor, launches torpedoes, and recharges itself with the current.

Shineray accelerates in Brazil with R$ 300 million by 2030: Suape factory receives R$ 77 million, expands to 76,000 m² and increases production to 250,000 motorcycles/year, while the R$ 200 million emissions laboratory is set to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

Astronauts who lived in space experienced accelerated bone loss, bones can “melt” in microgravity, and scientists warn that the problem may be closer than previously thought and could jeopardize missions to Mars.

China accelerates sustainable mining with over 5,500 green mines, legal support, solar plants, electric trucks, and smart operations, while the 2026-2030 plan expands environmental recovery and aims to transform mined areas into tourism and efficiency hubs.

This plant can save the soil: Embrapa reveals how the Sesbania plant can revolutionize soil recovery by absorbing toxins and increasing agricultural productivity, sparking interest in sustainable solutions in the field.

For the first time in history, an F-35 shot down a manned fighter in real combat — the target was a Russian Yak-130 jet flying over Tehran, and the two Iranian pilots ejected seconds before the crash.

Australian researchers have discovered that adding cigarette butts to clay in bricks makes them lighter, with better thermal insulation, and uses up to 60% less energy to produce, while 4.5 trillion butts are discarded worldwide each year.

Researchers from RMIT University in Australia added only 1% of cigarette butts to clay and the brick became lighter, isolated heat better, and used up to 60% less energy to be manufactured

The experiment: 1% of butts changes everything

Toxic substances are trapped inside the brick

The scale problem: how to collect trillions of butts

The numbers that add up

An idea too simple to be ignored

While in Brazil a 10-story building takes 2 years to complete, in China a company stacks pre-fabricated modules and raises the entire building in just 28 hours and 45 minutes.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

BRICS is preparing a payment system inspired by the Brazilian PIX that will allow direct transactions between countries using national digital currencies without relying on the dollar or Western banks as intermediaries.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

A factory video in India goes viral showing workers wearing helmets with cameras to train an artificial intelligence that will eventually replace these same employees on the production lines.

In the South Atlantic, three isolated volcanic islands cause the wind to draw perfect spirals visible from space: a rare phenomenon called von Kármán vortex streets forms symmetrical patterns behind the peaks of the South Sandwich Islands and was recorded by the NOAA-20 satellite in 2025.

Created to cling to ships like a lamprey, the new U.S. underwater drone sleeps on the ocean floor, launches torpedoes, and recharges itself with the current.

Shineray accelerates in Brazil with R$ 300 million by 2030: Suape factory receives R$ 77 million, expands to 76,000 m² and increases production to 250,000 motorcycles/year, while the R$ 200 million emissions laboratory is set to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

Legendary chameleon thought to be extinct for over 100 years ’emerges from nowhere’ in Madagascar after expedition finds 18 live specimens and reveals colorful females never described by science.

Nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the oldest still in operation, arrives in Rio for Operation Southern Seas 2026, the largest naval exercise by the U.S. on the continent since 2007, with joint maneuvers and scheduled stops in ten countries, including Brazil, Chile, Panama, and Jamaica.

Rare phenomenon in the desert: cave with permanent ice, negative temperature, and adapted life challenges science in New Mexico.

Goodbye piracy! The new helmet law will come into effect in July and QR Code will be mandatory on equipment.

Shineray accelerates in Brazil with R$ 300 million by 2030: Suape factory receives R$ 77 million, expands to 76,000 m² and increases production to 250,000 motorcycles/year, while the R$ 200 million emissions laboratory is set to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

Astronauts who lived in space experienced accelerated bone loss, bones can “melt” in microgravity, and scientists warn that the problem may be closer than previously thought and could jeopardize missions to Mars.

China accelerates sustainable mining with over 5,500 green mines, legal support, solar plants, electric trucks, and smart operations, while the 2026-2030 plan expands environmental recovery and aims to transform mined areas into tourism and efficiency hubs.

This plant can save the soil: Embrapa reveals how the Sesbania plant can revolutionize soil recovery by absorbing toxins and increasing agricultural productivity, sparking interest in sustainable solutions in the field.

For the first time in history, an F-35 shot down a manned fighter in real combat — the target was a Russian Yak-130 jet flying over Tehran, and the two Iranian pilots ejected seconds before the crash.