In Chile, around 6.6 million tires are thrown away every year, according to data provided by the Ministry of the Environment. Of these, only 17% are managed in an environmentally responsible way, while the rest end up in illegal dumps or disappear from the records, creating a serious environmental problem.
The project entitled “Advancing mass timber and precast concrete-timber building research by multi-physics and multi-scale engineering computations and large-scale experimental studies,” led by Erick Saavedra, was awarded an ANID Technology Ring with the potential for transforming the construction industry.
“We propose to research building, wood, concrete, and hybrid structures that mix the two. Today, construction in Chile is dominated by concrete, which is highly polluting,” stated the Civil Works Engineer.