[papercreters] Sustainability earned and learned

Forrest, your experiences of seeing waste like that breaks my heart.  I talk to  small contractors who take almost new  washers, stoves, doors, perfect 100 year old redwood planks to landfill because there is no way to recycle them or sell them.   I've stopped by house remodels and gotten wall cladding 12' long x 4" w T&G redwood, painted  on one side, but pristine on the other.

You are so right, that wood will never come again. Nothing new can replace the strength and endurance of the old stuff. A local non-profit tried to give young men work by sorting and grading a ton of  torn down redwood, they had a huge barn full, but in the end the plan was NOT sustainable with gov. grants, so they had to quit it.

and Bless you for telling the eco-snobs that you are using your Greenbacks with Grant on them. I am sick of the "gimme grant money so I can prove to the world they should recycle" nimrods.  Over 13 years of selling  books on natural building so many people asked me where they could get grants so they could build a 'sustaniable' home and teach others. I often said" why not just do it with your own money, and really show people sustainability and personal endeavour?"

People like Dan  Phillips are working small miracles. I still have hundreds of  wine corks and plan to make a small floor with, like I learned from him. ( he has a talk on TED people can watch.)

I once save a small truckload of heart wood old growth redwood from going to the dump.  It too has so fine a grain you could hardly see the rings. I asked the guy as he was parked at our local bank if I could  have the wood, and got a complete  small porch, beautiful wood, and am still using it up. The guy hated to dump it, but even with 25 thrift stores locally, we don't have a good way to save left over new  or good materials. I like the  waste to plow shares idea. We can get free leftover paint and bottled cleaners/waxes/stains etc at our recycle yard, that's it. 

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Charmaine Taylor/Publishing & Elk River Press
PO Box 375 Cutten CA 95534
www.papercrete.com
 

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