Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on October 12, 2012 at 11:13pm

OK, I can see using 45% recycled materials to build a house. Design to maximize solar heating in Winter and Shade in summer, great. Tires for your living room back wall, no way. They stink! Ditto for channeling your sewage into you living room garden. Dude hasn't heard of composting toilets? You could do hydroponic gardening and raise tilapia with clean water.

He's trying, and others will learn from his hits and misses.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on October 14, 2012 at 7:32pm

Other approaches to using recycled material for housing include reusing shipping containers. Example

Here's a Mexican company that builds housing from recycled plastic.

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on October 14, 2012 at 10:33pm

Great report! Perhaps we will one day go to the plastic patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and mine it for plastic! 

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on October 14, 2012 at 10:36pm

I just watched the "Example" and am intrigued by the "Be water my friend!" Great idea. 

Permalink Reply by Chris Breman on October 15, 2012 at 1:43am

It looks wonderful! The first earthships have been built here too, well above the groundwaterlevel, but I think a lot of adaptation is necessary to make a good home and avoid the damp in this muddy country. The recycled building material is used here too. 

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on October 15, 2012 at 2:05am

Are you expecting rise in ground water level? I saw videos of the construction of the sea walls in the Netherlands and that was some gigantic task. Are you located below sea level? I can't remember how far inland we drove before getting some elevation. What a testament to the determination of man against nature! 

Permalink Reply by Chris Breman on October 15, 2012 at 2:39am

Yes, when the sea level rises, the ground water level will also rise. And we are below sea level here, but only 3 or 4 metres. That leaves only a thin layer of earth to build on. When you want to build in the earth, e.g. for a cemetary, a cellar or an earthship, you have to start with a mound or you must find ways to keep the water out. I took a picture from the window just now, to show you the waterlevel between the dikes of the Schie. You have to drive for about 50 KM from the coast before you reach the parts above sea level.

 

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on October 15, 2012 at 3:18am

Oh! that is so pretty. Is this from your home or work? Do you bicycle? 

Permalink Reply by Chris Breman on October 15, 2012 at 3:30am

Yes, beautiful autumn weather here. This is from my home. I cycled until I got trouble with my equilibrium some fifteen years ago, and now I walk or use public transport.