Dive summary:

• Don't look for it at the local builders' supply house quite yet, but researchers in Turkey are experimenting with using various waste materials as the aggregate in concrete, and their latest effort involves the inedible husks of sunflower seeds, of which the country is the world's ninth-largest producer.
• The husks make for a less-dense material, and varying the mix can produce concrete with varying compressibility.
• The scientists also have looked at mixing in waste rubber, glass powder and paper waste sludge as concrete material, though not always with helpful results for various properties of the resulting product.

From the article:

Engineers Can Burak Sisman and Erhan Gezer of Namik Kemal University in Turkey, explain how the accumulation of unmanaged wastes from the food industry, particularly in developing countries is becoming increasingly problematic. ...