Reusing and recycling waste
Human beings throw away an awful lot of rubbish, when in actual fact large amounts of it can be reused, and perhaps applied to a different situation. We try not to do that, and always try to see if what others might consider to be waste could actually be turned into something useful.
This does not mean that anyone wishing to learn from our examples ought to adopt a ‘stig of the dump’ lifestyle, or hang around recycling centres scavenging from other people’s rubbish! Instead, we simply assess things that others might view as waste, and think long and hard about ways in which we can reuse them.
Reusing car tyres
For example, the roof tiles on Honeycomb are made from fragments of old car tyres. They keep the rain out, the heat in, and will not present any of the hassle or expense that a broken slate tile would should we ever need to replace one.
Building a wormery
Our wormery means that rather than heading into a landfill site, much of our rubbish can be gobbled up by our hungry team of tiger worms and turned into compost. This in turn can be used to help our fruit and vegetables grow even better, and ensures we reinvest the waste products that we generate into our own future - and it is so easy that anyone with a garden can do the same thing. Our case study page and education page can help you build your own.
Using a biodigester
Our biodigester and reed bed also makes sure that the waste water we produce - whether it is sewage or just dirty bath water - can be cleansed onsite, then filtered through a reed bed to purify it before it is returned to the land in a clean state.
We have plans to build yet further on using the biodigester in an even more efficient manner; by using the methane that is produced in the process of breaking the waste down to generate power that can be used to cook.
Growing food in our earthship
Our earthship is under construction, involving the use of large quantities of old tyres - another resource that we have found a use for. By packing earth into them, they make fabulous building material to construct walls from - visit the case study page to find out more about the earthship!
So, next time you’re heading to the bin with something that you think has no use, take a bit of time to see if there is a way you can re-use it rather than binning it - you might just surprise yourself with what can be achieved.