Concrete production with brewing industry waste

The productive sectors seek to rethink their activities to minimize their negative contribution to the climate, including solid waste generated by different areas. The use of waste from a productive sector in another productive sector can minimize the consequences of the current environmental degradation. In this study, the fine aggregate (sand) was partially replaced with diatomaceous earth waste from brewery filters without extensive treatment in concrete production. Concrete dosages were prepared with 0% (reference), 2.5%, 5%, and 10% w/w/replacement of diatomaceous earth waste and evaluated for axial compressive strength, diametral tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, specific mass, water absorption, and void ratio. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with a significance of 5%, tested the differences, followed by the Tukey-Kramer test for pairwise comparisons. All mixtures with replacements were significantly different from the reference mixture, but the results showed that it is possible to use the waste as a partial substitute for sand in the non-structural concrete production. Thus, it is possible to decrease the amount of natural sand and, at the same time, reduce the environmental liabilities of the brewing industry, creating some possibilities in the management of solid waste and mitigation in the exploitation of non-renewable natural reserves.