Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Building Engineering journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jobe An environment friendly new insulation material involving waste newsprint papers reinforced by cane stalks Orhan Aksogan a , Rifat Resatoglu b , Hanifi Binici c, ⁎ a Toros University, Department of Civil Engineering, Mersin 33140, Turkey b Department of Civil Engineering, Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus, Cyprus c Ceyhan Construction Company, Baskonus Street, Beyza Apt. No:9, Kahramanmaras, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Waste newsprint paper Cane stalks Vermiculite Perlite Zinc borax Insulation ABSTRACT Insulation is vital to most building design and aims to decrease the need for heating and cooling. This paper presents a procedure to obtain an alternative insulation material made with waste newsprint papers, cane stalks, vermiculite, perlite, zinc borax and plaster. Towards this end, waste newsprint papers were kept in water for one day until they formed dough. Then, different rates of vermiculite, perlite, and zinc borax were added to the dough. This mortar was placed in moulds of 4 × 16 × 16 cm dimensions with its own weight. In the production of the samples plaster was used as the binder. For increasing the fire resistance vermiculite and zinc borax were added to the mix. In the production of some samples 5 mm cane stalks were placed in grid forms of single and double rows and pressure was applied. After the production of the samples their unit weights, water absorption ratios, thermal and ultra sound transmission coefficients, and flexural and compressive strengths were de- termined. The samples produced with an additional double row of canes had the lowest thermal conductivity and ultra-sound permeability coefficients. The requirements of the standards were satisfied by the flexural and compressive strengths of all samples. Samples with both types of grids had rather low thermal conductivity coefficients. The flexural strengths of these samples were found to be higher than those of the others. These results indicate that the investigated materials can be used for thermal and ultrasonic sound insulation purposes. Furthermore, ASTM Standards’ fire resistance requirements are also satisfied. Hence, the proposed product has potential as a candidate to be commercialized with further improvements in the future. 1. Introduction Insulation materials in buildings have become widely used since the beginning of the 20th century. The new building and construction systems provide many benefits and evoke some drawbacks in terms of building physics and the conditions of comfort that emerge as time passes. The exterior walls must be thin to prevent the load carrier system [1,2]. Recently energy conservation has gained a great importance due to economic and strategic reasons. 40% of the total energy consumed in the EU is consumed in buildings and about half of that is lost as heat passes out through the external walls [2]. Current methods of building construction widespread in recent years and new building materials have provided many benefits in terms of building physics and comfort. In this framework, isolation of building walls is a matter open to new research as it provides energy-saving opportunity [3–5]. Buildings are insulated in Turkey to reduce high costs of heating in summer and cooling in winter. About 35% of the energy consumed in Turkey is consumed in buildings. Hence, various kinds of insulating materials are used in the existing buildings in Turkey [6]. Natural resources are being used up day by day because of the in- crease in the world population. However, it is well known that natural resources can be protected by recycling. In addition, material con- sumption can be reduced and natural resources can be used more ef- ficiently by recycling qualified wastes. Hence, recycling is very im- portant for the protection and efficient use of natural resources [7]. Recently, the use of various waste materials has become widespread in civil engineering. They can be listed as mineral-based [8–13], plastic [14], agricultural [15] and textile [16,17] wastes. Mineral-based wastes are used as additives or substitutes in cement and concrete. They are marble or granite waste, fly ash, blast furnace slag, stone dust or brick dust. Thus, both the cost of concrete decreases and its durability in- creases. Thermoplastic waste is used either as aggregate or fibre in concrete. Here, it is aimed to improve the toughness and bending strength of the concrete. Agricultural and textile wastes are generally used in the production of insulation materials. Agricultural bio-based https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.10.011 Received 29 April 2017; Received in revised form 21 September 2017; Accepted 29 October 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: aksogan@cu.edu.tr (O. Aksogan), rifat.resatoglu@neu.edu.tr (R. Resatoglu), hanifibinici@gmail.com (H. Binici). Journal of Building Engineering 15 (2018) 33–40 Available online 31 October 2017 2352-7102/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK