Global IssuesLATIN AMERICA: Brick-Making Industry Confronts Its Climate Impacts
Wearing rolled up trousers and a spattered shirt, Carlos Frías mixes mud, water and manure to prepare a row of red bricks.
When the mixture is ready, the Mexican brickmaker, or 'tabiquero,' kneads it and pours it into a mould. His hands quickly adjust the mixture in place, and then he sprays it down with water to give it the right consistency.
The rows of moulds sit in the sun undisturbed for four days until they are dry, then the pieces are placed in an oven, which has a base with an opening for fuel, and walls made of discarded bricks.
The brick industry in Mexico is a big polluter and a health hazard -- and is largely artisanal. The 20,000 brickmakers in this country barely make a living from their work. The informality of the sector tends to make the figures on their contribution to the economy invisible.
'We don't earn much. We are seen as an informal industry and we aren't integrated into the construction sector,' says Frías, 32, who is a business administration graduate of the Technological Institute of León, and secretary of El Refugio Brickmakers Union.
Production is manual, in conventional ovens using wood or fuel oil, and the bricks are low quality, according to an assessment by the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation (Swisscontact).
In the view of Mexico's Secretariat (ministry) of Environment, the brickmakers over-exploit natural resources, alter ecosystems and pollute the air and water with production waste.
The ovens emit nitric oxide (which is highly toxic), volatile organic compounds like hydrocarbons in a gaseous state, carbon monoxide and particulate matter -- this last from the burning of mud.
In El Refugio neighbourhood, located in the municipality of Duarte, about 390 kilometres north of Mexico City, there are 128 of these informal businesses, which have joined the Latin American Artisanal Brickmakers Programme for Energy Efficiency to Mitigate Climate Change (EELA).
The project is under way in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, sponsored by Swisscontact and national partners in each country. In the first phase, 2010-2013, research is being conducted on the status of the industry in each country, and technical improvements are being tested.
A core objective is to reduce the emission of greenhouse-effect gases from the ovens, thereby curbing the industry's contribution to climate change.
The efforts are focused on improving energy efficiency, introducing alternative and less polluting fuels, improving the artisanal ovens and raising the quality of the final product. The EELA participants also hope that the governments will include their solutions when drawing up new public policies.
'We hope to reconcile social, economic and environmental problems. But we also need to create dignity in the work as well as recognition,' Frías, whose association was founded in 1996, told Tierramérica.
In Colombia, meanwhile, in the central municipality of Nemocón, EELA began implementation in the second half of 2010.
Nemocón, home to 11,000 people, is setting up small 'chircales' (the local name for brick factories), 'where it is urgent to apply and develop ecological technologies for materials, processing and marketing in order to overcome the poverty of those who depend on this activity,' states the municipal government's website.
Exposed brick is a characteristic of Colombian architecture, and especially in Bogotá. The first brick factories here date back to 1550.
Of the 1,700 brick factories in Colombia, 130 are located in Nemocón, where 400 ovens operate. The ovens run on coal, which releases nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide when burned, contributing to climate change and leading to respiratory illnesses among the workers and residents of the area.
'We began training sessions, but we are still in the process of determining how to achieve the widespread implementation of the project,' Ricardo Garay, director of the municipal unit for technical and agricultural assistance, told Tierramérica.
'Fifty-seven miners, who will become disseminators of the information, attended the training, which included subjects like rainwater management,' he said.
In Garay's opinion, 'the project is viable and will have excellent results in the middle term, not only for the brick industry, but also for all production that uses clay.'
Swisscontact describes Colombia's brick production as 'semi-mechanised' and uses ovens of low efficiency.
To fire the bricks, the ovens need to maintain a temperature above 1,000 degrees Celsius for an average of 24 hours. That means an efficient fuel is needed, as well as an oven that conserves the heat generated.
The seven countries involved in the EELA programme together have about 48,000 ovens that annually emit six million tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Technological improvements could reduce those emissions by as much as 30 percent, or a reduction of about 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Mexico, for example, emits approximately 709 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year nationally.
The brick-making efficiency project is being implemented according to the unique qualities of each country. In the first three-year phase, Mexico is testing different types of ovens and fuels. Once that phase is done, the experts will share the results in order to determine the most appropriate technology for each location to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this way, a group of brick-makers will apply the proposed methods, and if they prove effective will be extended nationally and regionally, as appropriate.
In El Refugio, Mexico's brick-making centre since 1985, there are 380 ovens operating. The cost or production is one cent of a dollar per brick. The sale price is 13 cents. Meanwhile, in Colombia, the production cost is six cents per brick, to be sold at 25 cents per brick.
In 1999, the Mexican Corporation for Materials Research, an agency of the National Science and Technology Council, developed an efficiency project with brick-makers in the northern city of Saltillo, where ovens run on motor oil, with a special fuel distributor that allowed them to reduce emissions by 60 to 80 percent.
* Helda Martínez contributed reporting from Bogotá. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service