A large quantity of sludge is generated each year from wastewater treatment plants in Malaysia. Disposal of sludge at sanitary landfill is the common practice. This is impractical because of the high cost of transportation and because it depletes the capacity of the landfill. Moreover, heavy metals in sewage sludge will produce leaching and pollute the environment. Reuse of the sludge could be an alternative to the current disposal method. This study investigated the reusability of sewage sludge as fired clay brick. Different series of sludge and clay proportioning ratios were studied, which exclusively involved the addition of sludge with ratios of 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% of the total weight of sludge-clay mixture. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis were used to characterize clay and sewage sludge. The physical and mechanical properties test was conducted to all bricks production. Tank Leaching Test according to NEN7345 method was conducted to define heavy metals leachability in bricks. The leaching result from incorporation of fired clay bricks with sewage sludge fulfilled the requirement limits of USEPA for bricks. As a conclusion, the utilization of sewage sludge into fired clay bricks can reduce the disposal to landfill and becoming an alternative disposal method.
