RECYCLE MATERIALS

It is satisfying, fun and economical to reuse old building materials. In our society there has been a stigma attached to "used" stuff. We value "new" above all else, or at least the advertising forces would have us believe that. Antiques, of course, have acquired their own cachet and their value is hyped, primarily because of rarity. It's that middle ground of stuff that isn't new and hasn't acquired the status of being "antique" that I would like to focus on here.

The local dump is a great place to look for such stuff because it is often perceived as valueless. Our local dump actually has an area set aside for potentially reusable items, and they encourage people to sort through it. We found our kitchen sink there, in perfectly good condition, except for a little chip in the corner that I covered with tile. The virtue of recycling used building materials lies in diminishing the need for industry to recreate it. All of the energy that is spent in manufacturing and transporting something can be saved. The raw materials that would be drawn from the earth can be saved. The need to cover the item in the local landfill can be saved.

The value of recycling building materials, or anything else for that matter, is that the cost is likely to be a fraction of the same thing in the "new" category. The savings can be substantial. Take the case of Lonny Roth's house that he is building in our neighborhood. It is a very nice looking house of about 1,200 square feet. Lonny tells me that about three quarters of all the materials used to build the house have been recycled. He estimates that the cost of the house when it is finished will be right around $20,000. About half of the materials for Lonny's house were pulled from dumpsters at construction sites. Much of the framing and sheathing materials were found this way. Also many of the doors, windows, sinks, plumbing parts and appliances were used.

Another approach to recycling is to take an existing container and incorporate it into the structure of the house. I've seen this done with water towers, wine vats, silos, cabooses and box cars. There are several houses in our area that have utilized railroad box cars very effectively. One of these has incorporated two refrigerated box cars lined up parallel to each other, with a room spanning the space in between them. Refrigerated box cars are nice in that they are already well insulated. One of the cars in Larry Johnson's house is earth bermed all the way to the top on the north side. The other one has a greenhouse attached to the south side. These box cars measure about fifty feet by ten feet, so they create about 500 square feet of living space each. With the additions to this space, Larry has about 2300 square feet all together.

In our earthbag house we used lots of old metal wagon wheels and culvert couplers to create circular supports for windows. We had to scrounge a bit for the wheels because they seem to be popular for yard ornaments. We also used a few truckloads of trash paper making the papercrete to cover the earthbags. The polypropylene bags themselves are recycled misprinted rice bags. Some of the lumber used to frame the solar roof was salvaged from a local barn.

There is a good chance that old wood (if it has been kept dry) is better that what can be purchased as new lumber. This is true for two reasons. First, it has had a chance to cure; new lumber is often green lumber. Secondly, the trees that supplied the lumber in the first place were likely larger in girth, and therefore the wood has fewer knots and is less likely to twist and warp.

Many localities have places that collect and resell recycled building materials. They might accept and sell such materials as wood, flooring, doors, windows, electrical supplies, ducting, hardware, plumbing, insulation, cabinets, fencing and landscaping. So I suggest that before you go off to the store to buy something new for your house, you might check the used section of the classified ads, second hand stores, salvage yards, the dump, or your neighbor's garage sale. Rather than stimulate more industrial activity, why not utilize something that is looking for a home?