Brick is a material used as a wall component made of fired clay. In line with the development of infrastructure, which is increasingly developing every year, the use of this material is also increasing. The selection of brick as a wall component requires using other materials, such as cement as an adhesive. This certainly causes the use of cement to remain high so that the negative impacts caused by it do not decrease. For this reason, efforts need to be made to reduce the use of cement to minimize these negative impacts.
On the other hand, Indonesia has a very high number of plastic users. Indonesia’s high number of plastic users is comparable to the high amount of waste produced. To answer this problem, an innovation is needed to reduce the use of cement while utilizing plastic waste in Indonesia. One innovation that can be done is to make a mixture of plastic waste and sand into interlocking bricks, abbreviated as Ezzleblock, which has a unique locking shape. Ezzleblock has a unique locking system that is different from other bricks and has a shape and dimensions that have never existed.
Based on the test results, “Ezzleblock” has an average gross compressive strength of 97.38 Kg/cm2, so it meets the class II brick quality criteria according to SNI 03-0349-1989. The average water absorption test results of Ezzleblock are 7.68%, which is lower than the percentage permitted for class I quality bricks, which is a maximum of 25%. The installation test results obtained an average conventional brick installation test for 5 minutes 43 seconds, while the installation of Ezzleblock took 1 minute 29 seconds. With the interlock system, Ezzleblock has a faster installation time than conventional bricks with a 4-minute to 14-second difference. Without adhesive, Ezzleblock is more economical than traditional bricks because, for the needs per m2, it requires a cost of Rp 67,500, while conventional bricks require a price of Rp 80,292.