Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumColombia transforms old tires into green housing
Colombia transforms old tires into green housing
By Paula Carrillo (AFP) 4 hours ago in World .
The highlands around the Colombian capital are scattered with small buildings that look like out-of-place igloos but are in fact innovative houses made from the tires that litter the country's roads.
The woman behind the project is Alexandra Posada, a 35-year-old environmental activist who sports a cowboy hat and jeans while she works, her buff biceps rippling in her tank top as she slings around old tires and shovels them full of dirt.
"I get these tires for free because it's a huge problem for people to get rid of them," she told AFP.
"They take thousands of years to decompose -- which we've transformed from a problem into an opportunity," she said. "If you use them as construction materials, they become virtually eternal bricks."
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A view of a house built with discarded tires in Choachi, Cundinamarca, Colombia on March 16, 2015
Eitan Abramovich, AFP/File
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Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/colombia-transforms-old-tires-into-green-housing/article/429605#ixzz3VvcY98DK
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)see someone actually doing it!
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Dennis Weaver's Earthship in Ridgeway, CO. Fabulous place, fantastic ideas. It's sad that we don't take advantage of the bounty of materials we create and throw away.
http://www.motherearthliving.com/green-living/a-visit-with-environmentor-dennis-weaver.aspx
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)What an outstanding place to visit!
procon
(15,805 posts)I'd be barfing and end up practically comatose from trying to breathe around so many of them.
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)I'd think they would want to consider that as one of the first steps.
No one likes horrific smells. Yikes.
mackdaddy
(1,520 posts)Old used tires usually do not have much if any smell left as the volitile chemicals are long out-gassed by the time they get to this stage.
The other thing is that in this use, they are stuffed full of dirt pounded with a sledge hammer, and are usually fully enclosed in a coating of adobe and plaster. There are a ton of videos on youtube on earthship and tire type building. The only place they would leave the tires exposed are on and exterior retaining wall like those in the above photo.
Most of these tire walls you would not even know there were tired in there. They just look like thick adobe walls.