Houses From Trash

A lot of visionary people out there are convinced that pretty much anything in the waste stream can be turned to more productive use. And quite a number of them are building low-cost houses out of other people’s discarded junk.

The above link takes you to several articles, with cool photos, about various people who are doing just that. (Note that the first, second, and fourth links all cover the work of one man, Dan Phillips of Huntsville, Texas—but with different pictures and narrative).

What I love about this kind of approach is that it simultaneously accomplishes multiple goods:

• Provides low-cost housing at a time when so many have lost their homes
• Reduces landfill waste, and thus extends the life of our landfills
• Demonstrates the viability of other approaches than throwing stuff to rot slowly in a huge heap
• Reduces the need to harvest virgin materials, and thus cuts back on environmentally destructive practices such as clear-cutting and strip-mining
• Eliminates the release of significant carbon and other greenhouse gases compared to construction from new materials
• Encourages all of us to use our creativity and ingenuity  to address the problems of our time
• Shows yet again that one person can make a difference