The amount of wastes generated by the miner and mineral processing industries has increasing day by day due to the high demand cause by the global economy grow up. The processing kaolin ad sawing granite industries are important economic segments in the state of Paraíba, but generate high amounts of wastes. This work has as aim the characterization of the kaolin processing waste and granite sawing waste and the evaluation of their use together for the production of bricks and roof tiles. The wastes were characterized by chemical composition determination, X-ray diffraction, differential thermal and gravimetric analyses, particle size distribution determination, and morphological analysis by electronic scanning microscopy. Several formulations were prepared and samples bodies were prepared by extrusion. The sample bodies were fired at 800, 900 and 1000 ºC. Fired samples were characterized in terms of water absorption and mechanical strength. The results showed that the kaolin waste is composed by kaolinite, mica and quartz and that the granite waste is composed by quartz, mica, albite and calcite, and that, the wastes have significantly distinct particles size distributions. It could also be concluded that are possible incorporations of up to 50% of wastes in formulation for the production of ceramic bricks and roof tiles, and that, the use of the kaolin waste and granite waste together provide better physical properties than those observed in samples bodies with incorporations of only kaolin waste.
waste; recycling; kaolin; granite; ceramic bricks and roof tiles
