Fired Bricks: CO₂ Emission and Food Insecurity

Abstract

Fired bricks are used for construction purposes over the millennia, going back to the Indus Valley Civilization. The traditional brick‐making process involves removal of agriculturally productive topsoil rich in clay and soil organic matter contents. In addition to the removal of the fertile topsoil and accelerated degradation by other processes, the traditional clay brick making process also emits CO 2 and other gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, the present study aims to assess the impact of brick making in India on: (i) the magnitude of annual CO 2 emission and (ii) the loss of agricultural production. Currently, 0.7 Mha (million hectare) of agricultural land is under brick kilns that produce ≈250 billion bricks annually. It is estimated that soil organic carbon lost through the firing process of 250 billion bricks is 5.58–6.12 Tg (teragram) (20.48–22.46 Tg CO 2 ), and in conjunction with clay burning and coal combustion the process releases 40.65–42.64 Tg CO 2 into the atmosphere per annum. Brick kiln also impacts quality of the exposed subsoil, and may also reduce 60–90% agronomic yield. Therefore, brick making from topsoil exacerbates food and nutritional insecurity by degrading soil quality, and increases risks of climate change through increase in gaseous emissions.

Environmental impacts and decarbonization strategies in the cement and concrete industries

“…In comparison steel production has been increased by a factor 3 and timber construction stayed nearly constant 3 . Among materials used for construction, cement accounted for 36% of the 7.7 GtCO2 released globally in 2010 by construction activities 4 , while steel accounts for 25% 5 , plastics 8% 4 , aluminum less than 4%, 6 and brick less than 1% 7,8 .…”

Sustainable Soil Management for Food Security in South Asia

“…Lal (2009) reported the removal of 0.5-0.7% of the top 1 m of agricultural soil for brick making in the states of Punjab and Haryana, India. Some other studies have reported a decline in soil fertility, due to the removal of the upper soil layer for brick making in India (Kathuria and Balasubramanian 2013) and Bangladesh (Saha and Hosain 2016), with a substantial increase in emission of GHGs from kilns (Nath et al 2018).…”

Artisan Brick Kilns: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends

“…The small particle size of pollutants promotes respiratory diseases [70][71][72][73], along with causing environmental stress to plant species [67,74,75]. Therefore, investments aimed at new technologies for reducing emissions are fully justified.…”