CarbonCraft Design: Turning tyres into tiles and homes

The startup has developed the first-of-its-kind CarbonCraft Tile from upcycled carbon that is collected from waste carbon streams with the aim to make carbon neutral homes

By Benu Joshi Routh

Published: May 26, 2022 11:42:41 AM IST

Updated: May 26, 2022 12:49:56 PM IST

Tejas Sidnal, founder, CarbonCraft Design

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The larger vision of the company is to build carbon negative homes,” says Tejas Sidnal, founder, CarbonCraft Design. “And with that, we’re looking at a clean and healthy living experience.”

Sidnal, an architect and biomimetic designer, has developed CarbonCraft Tile, a first-of-its-kind to be made using upcycled carbon that is collected from waste carbon streams—tyre pyrolysis, biomass waste, particulate matter capturing partners.

“Each year, 100 million waste tyres are recycled in India and there are over 600 registered pyrolysis plants. An estimated 1.5 lakh tonne of this carbon waste is produced here,” says Sidnal. Until now, there has been no repurposing of this material other than burning at cement and bricks kilns as a cheap fuel, he says. “This would have otherwise ended up in landfills, contaminating our soil and water bodies, or the air.”

Using a 200-year-old craft in a factory in Morbi, Gujarat, this carbon is combined with marble chips, marble powder and cement and proprietary binders to make tiles. Available in 16-plus pattern designs, 40 plus plate designs and varying sizes, a Carbon Craft tile uses a fifth of the energy as opposed to a mass-produced conventional tile, prevents 15 minutes of diesel car pollution, and utilises 70 percent upcycled material.

Carbon Craft Design got the Emergent Venture grant from Mercatus Centre backed by the Thiel Foundation, and was the third global winner from 3,000-plus participants at the ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest clean tech competition.

The venture is bootstrapped and looking to raise funds. Sidnal is eyeing 1 million sq ft of deployment to make significant social and environmental impact. “We can use the same technology to make bricks, building materials & ink,” he says.