68 AMERICANWAY
NOVEMBER 15 2009
The Earthship concept began humbly enough around 1970, when
Reynolds,aftergraduating fromtheUniversityofCincinnati’sarchi-
tecture program,moved to his current home of Taos, NewMexico.
It was then that he happened to catch a report byWalter Cronkite
on clear-cutting timber in theNorthwest and the looming environ-
mental dilemmas this created, and a subsequent report by Charles
Kuraltaboutagrowinggarbageproblem.SoonReynoldswas “mak-
ingabuildingblockout of beer cans touse fewer treesand toeatup
garbage— trying tokill twobirdswithone stone,” he says.
he
eternal cliché of one man’s
trash being another man’s
treasure has reached its ulti-
mate form in earthships, the man-
made homes that are the brainchild
of Michael Reynolds. Composed of
about45percent recycledmaterials;
powered from solar, wind, and pho-
tovoltaic sources; and disconnected
from the mainstream energy grid
and public services, earthships are
becomingan important—andmany
argue,vital—newtypeofhousingfor
a planet with an exploding popula-
tionanddwindlingnatural resources.
They have evenbeenhighlightedon
CBS and CNN.
¶
“here’s a group of
individuals who have empowered
themselves in a fairly unique way,”
declares Oliver hodge, director of
the documentary film
GarbageWar-
rior
,which chronicles theexploitsof
Reynolds and his earthships team.
“They’re making radical changes to
their own lives and other people’s
without the help of government or-
ganizations or corporations. They’re
using leftovers [in their] design and
innovationtosurviveoff-grid.”
