Indorama recognizes building product with innovation award

Bangkok-based Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. is one of several organizations that has helped select a construction brick or block made from recycled materials as the winner of the 2023 Circular Innovation Challenge 2023.

The interlocking brick, designed by a team of “young innovators” based in Thailand, is named SCPB for the semicalcite passive brick they made from shells, plastics and glass shards collected from restaurants, shores and riverbanks in Thailand.

Indorama, a producer and recycler of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other plastics, partnered with the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok and its “social innovation” GLab, TikTok Thailand, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the Switzerland-based Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Lab to organize the 2023 Circular Innovation Challenge.

The contest is a five-week "hackathon" aimed at cultivating future thought leaders through circular innovation. The event included workshops before the final competition took place.

The program was open to people from 16 to 30 years old from 11 Southeast Asian countries. The total number of teams signed up was 830, with 3,333 combined members, with 10 of those teams selected as finalists. The 10 finalists were from Cambodia (one), Indonesia (three), Philippines (two), Thailand (three) and Vietnam (one), according to the company.

The winning interlocking semicalcite passive brick is described by Indorama as “a building material that combines structural strength with passive environmental control features, including humidity management and thermal regulation.”

The product offers benefits to builders and the environment by enhancing construction efficiency, reducing energy consumption through improved thermal insulation, and contributing to a healthier living environment, Indorama states, adding the “circular concept” of using locally sourced discarded materials creates a loop system within the local context.