Recycled Cement Alternatives

Engineers at RMIT University in Melbourne have created cardboard-confined rammed earth (CCRE), a sustainable building material made from soil, water, and recycled cardboard—no cement required. Designed for low-rise buildings, CCRE combines compacted soil with cardboard tubes to form strong, crack-resistant walls while producing just one-quarter the carbon footprint of concrete and costing less than a third as much.

The material is fully recyclable and reusable, offering a low-waste, affordable alternative for construction, particularly in hot or resource-limited regions. By rethinking traditional building inputs, CCRE demonstrates that sustainable, high-performance architecture can be achieved without heavy industry or high emissions.

“Modern rammed earth construction compacts soil with added cement for strength. Cement use is excessive given the natural thickness of rammed earth walls,” said Dr. Jiaming Ma, lead author of the study, said in an interview.

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