The sludge from wastewater treatment in industrial laundries is a II-A class non-inert material, due to its solubility in water. This waste has been paid special attention, due to the large quantities that are produced and therefore the high cost of the final destination in landfills. This way, the objective of this work was to evaluate the quality of sealing ceramic bricks manufactured with sludge from industrial laundry incorporated in red ceramic mass, by the extrusion process, in laboratory scale (73 x 35 x 55 mm), with the following weight percentages of sludge: 0 (model), 5, 10, 15, and 20%. After the burning in a ceramic industry, the quality of the bricks was evaluated by tests of compression resistance, water absorption, leaching and solubilization. The obtained results showed that the compression resistance was inversely proportional to the quantity of sludge that was added during the manufacturing of the bricks, while water absorption was directly proportional to that quantity. None of the analyzed heavy metals was leached in the leaching test or detected in the solubilization test, proving that the product is inert. According to the results it is possible to produce sealing bricks with up to 20% of industrial laundries sludge incorporated in clay.
industrial laundry sludge; ceramic brick; clay; red ceramics; industrial wastes
