(ECNS)--A young man from the southern city of Shenzhen has turned air pollutants collected in Beijing into a concrete brick.
The man who calls himself "nut brother" said he came up with the idea in 2013, when media reports were filled with smog and PM2.5.
During 100 days this year, the man collected air pollutants with an industrial vacuum cleaner in front of the city's landmarks, including Tiananmen Square, the National Grand Theatre, CCTV headquarters, and the National Stadium Bird's Nest.
The vacuum cleaner can last four days with every charge, and can suck in the amount of air that 62 people breathe every day.
On Monday, he compressed the dust at a factory in Tangshan city of Hebei province, which will be fired into a brick. He plans to use the brick as building material in Beijing.
He wrote in his "Dust Plan" that people demand more resources. "We will turn into dust with the exhaustion of resources," he said.
On Sunday, authorities in Beijing announced that the city's air pollution alert had been upgraded from yellow to orange - the highest smog alert of the year - and that industrial plants are required to reduce or shut down production.
