One man’s meat is another man’s poison, or in another variant, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The latter certainly rings true where the Waste House is concerned. The Waste House was specially constructed at the University Of Brighton campus, where it will make use of waste materials that have been sourced from domestic and construction sites, going to show just how flexible things can be when one puts one’s mind and heart into it. Garbage doubling up as an environmentally friendly material to build a house is certainly an opportunity that is worth exploring, as it might mean a roof over the head of millions of homeless people worldwide. The Waste House project is touted to be the first permanent British building that was constructed mainly from waste and recycled materials. Right now, the Waste House is an ongoing experiment that intends to prove the maxim that “there is no such thing as waste, just stuff in the wrong place.”

Can garbage be used as an eco-material to construct a house? That’s the intriguing premise behind the recently-completed Waste House project, which is believed by those involved to be the first permanent British building built almost solely from waste and recycled materials. Constructed at the University of Brighton’s Grand Parade campus, the Waste House is an ongoing experiment which aims to prove, in the organizer’s own words, that “there is no such thing as waste, just stuff in the wrong place.” A team of 253 students and apprentices led by BBM Architects Director and senior lecturer Duncan Baker-Brown spent three months designing, and another 12 building the house, with work completed in April this year. Around 90 percent of the materials that went into making the structure are waste products that were derived from various household and construction sites. This included some 20,000 toothbrushes (used once by business and first class aircraft passengers), 2 tons (1.8 tonnes) of denim jeans, 4,000 DVD cases, 2,000 floppy discs, and 2,000 used carpet tiles – the latter used to clad the home’s facade. The frame and floors of Waste House are made from recycled wood, and the house also features a rammed-earth wall built from compacted chalk waste and clay. The rammed earth wall, made from 11 tons (10 tonnes) of chalk waste and 10 percent of clay, adds to the structure’s energy-efficiency thanks to its 35 cm (13.7 in) thickness and natural thermal properties.