One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Hey Guys --

International Listings created an article naming and describing 10 beautiful houses made out of what most would consider trash. If you're looking for a way to make your lifestyle more green check out these homes and see what some people came up with...

Earthships...

In Taos, New Mexico these earthships are very common. The house in the picture on the right was built using a tire frame filled with earth, and then plastered with adobe or cement to hide the tires. Earthships come in a variety of mediums such as empty aluminum cans instead of tires and it's not just what's on the 

outside that make these homes so eco-friendly. Earthships commonly use ecological concepts such as solar and wind power and grey-water systems to help the environment. The thing I find so intriguing about these Earthships is that they don't resemble a normal house at all. The Earthship in the picture looks like a castle. If I were to pass this house the first thing I would think of would be "Woah! That's an awesome looking house!" not "Woah! Look at that advancement in sustainable design." Usually when I think eco-friendly house I assume it to be very modern, solar panels everywhere, but they don't all have to be like that, especially not this one.

Plane House...

This house built out of a Boeing 747 plane, reinforces the idea that you can recycle almost anything. 

David Hertz, an architect in Santa Monica, California, is the mastermind behind this magnificent piece of work. Hertz found the plane at the Aviation Warehouse for $70,000 - $100,000 (which is relatively cheap), however the home owner Francie Rehwald, planed to spend at least 2 million dollars on the project.

If we can take an old plane and reuse it to make a beautiful house think of what else we could make homes out of!

Recycling Your Old House...

The Quimby family in Portland, Oregon had to demolish their old home, but instead of just tearing it up into useless pieces they strategically took it apart saving things like windows, doors, flooring and more to reconstruct their new home. If and when they need a part that couldn't be reused from their old house they made sure that that item was green. The Quimby's didn't give a specific price but Mrs.Quimby said that it saved them thousands of dollars, which makes sense. You're not building a house completely out of new products and your not buying a new home all together. If you're interested in doing something like this the Building Materials Reuse Association is a non-profit organization committed to educating people on avoiding landfill waste and pollution, reducing the amount of resources being used, creating markets and increasing cost-effectiveness and more.

I guess it's true what they say, one man's trash really is another man's treasure.

Stay eco-friendly guys,

-Romulus

*** I didn't include all of the houses listed in the article so to read about the ones that weren't mentioned here check out the 10 Amazing, Beautiful Houses Built from Trash article on International Listings ***