This is the House that Tyres Built
The Channel 4 series, Grand Designs, follows people as they embark on the stressful, sometimes costly, but ultimately rewarding journey of building their own home. For many this dream involves vast spaces, great views and extravagant design specifications being at the centre of the project; for one couple though, creating a carbon neutral home made from ‘rubbish’ was the ultimate, if not slightly unusual, goal.
On a recent episode of Grand Designs Daren and Adi, a couple from Brighton, decided to set about building a house using as many recycled materials as possible in Brittany, France. As an ecological building consultant, Daren was well placed to embark on this journey and this also meant his knowledge of using recycled materials in building work was extensive; enabling him to set about building the external walls of his new home using old car tyres.
Using tyres to build homes originates from houses built in New Mexico in the early 1970’s; as excellent insulators tyres, with their heat-retaining properties, are ideal for withstanding extreme weather conditions such as those seen in the desert. The use of tyre structures in Europe, however, is relatively uncommon, with the first tyre structure being built in Britain in Brighton and Daren was instrumental in its construction.
In 2001 over 50 million tyres were disposed of within the UK, and are listed as a controlled waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which means that there are measures in place in ensure that they are disposed of safely through registered carriers and to local sites. Despite these measures, however, approximately 40% of all tyres that are disposed of are still either sent to landfill, stockpiled or illegally disposed of.
Although there are many options for the recycling of tyres, some of these, such as Energy Recovery (where the tyres are burnt to produce energy) have catastrophic consequences for Climate Change even though they prevent the tyres from going to landfill.
Currently, tyres are routinely used in Britain to construct landfill sites, where they are used to form leachate draining systems. When tyres are used in this way they are except from landfill tax and between 1998 and 1999 there was a 20% increase in tyres used in this way. Tyres are also used to build structures such as boat and dock fenders, sports tracks and children’s play surfaces. Thus far, however, using tyres to construct homes is an unknown territory in this country, with many laws in place restricting the use of ‘waste materials’ in the construction of homes.
Tyres are a waste product that we, as a country, continue to struggle with the disposal of: 10,000 tonnes of tyres are still exported to other countries for use as part-worn tyres or for overseas retread operations, with exportation leading to the production of greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change.
What Daren and Adi have done, through the construction of their home from what many people think of as ‘rubbish’ is shown us a new way to think about the waste that we produce. While not all of us have the desire, money or knowledge to build a home from waste materials, this home has shown that with a little imagination our rubbish can become something not only useful, but beautiful.
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