Ceramic companies worldwide produce large amounts of polishing tile waste, which are piled up in the
open air or disposed of in landfills. These wastes have such characteristics that make them potential
substitutes for cement and sand in the manufacturing of concrete products. This paper investigates the
use of ceramic tile polishing waste as a partial substitute for cement and sand in the manufacturer of
concrete paving blocks. A concrete mix design was defined and then the sand was replaced with wastes
from three production lines (porcelain tile, porous tile and stoneware tile) of a Brazilian ceramic tile
industry in the percentages of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Another group of concrete was produced
with porcelain tile waste replacing the cement. The concretes were characterized using a slump test.
Paving blocks were produced and subjected to compression strength, water absorption and porosity
tests. Compression strength values were compared to Brazilian Standards for paving blocks. A reduction
in slump was observed for all concretes as the percentage of waste addition increased, in relation to the
control concrete. The compression strength values were higher for concrete cured for 28 days, and all
blocks met the standard requirement of 35 MPa for light vehicle traffic at a curing age of 7 days. The
strength values obtained when the porcelain tile waste replaced sand were higher than when this waste
replaced cement, and those values were even higher than the control concrete, and met the standard
requirement of 50 MPa for heavy vehicle traffic. Water absorption values tended to decrease as sand was
replaced by ceramic tile wastes, due to the filler effect. These results show that it is possible to replace
30% of fine aggregate or 20% of cement with ceramic tile wastes and produce paving blocks suitable for
use in heavy vehicle traffic. Thus, this research demonstrates that the use of ceramic tile waste as a
component of concrete for paving blocks manufacturing is technically feasible