Off-the-grid homes made of recycled garbage, ‘earthships’ could become million-dollar climate-change havens

More than half a century ago, Mike Reynolds started building earthships in New Mexico. For a long time, most people thought he was crazy.

Reynolds summarized what people thought of him, saying "Why is this idiot using garbage to build with, and why is this idiot trying to make buildings that don't need utilities?"

More and more people are buying in, so this self-proclaimed idiot is looking pretty smart.

A current spike is caused by covid and climate change. This is getting to be the right place and the right time for these ideas to be accepted more than they have ever been before. He said that they used to scare people.

Earthships are homes made out of recycled materials. They are off the grid.

The premise is to give people what Reynolds calls the six points of sustenance that they need to stay alive: comfortable shelter without fossil fuel, electricity, water, food, treatment of sewage, and use of garbage.

Earthships cost from $200 to $400 per square foot to build. They follow the same guidelines as the Earthship academy, which explains water systems, solar and indoor farming. They use less power than a regular house and are made from recycled materials. They are also climate resilient.

Reynolds said that they are taking a beefed-up design that is tornado- resistant to Kentucky.

When the Texas electrical grid failed due to an ice storm, all these things would have saved lives. Almost two-thirds of the deaths were due to cold.

I am walking down my hallway, barefoot, picking bananas, and I am watching people waiting in lines in cars for a sack of food on TV. We need to get people to know that this is possible. It is more than rhetoric and a pipe dream. There is evidence that this is possible in the building I am standing in. Reynolds said today, right now.

The 630-acre earthship community was bought in by Andrew Bratz. Reynolds has helped with the design and much of his own work.

It is going to be the ark for my family.

When Jessica and Brian Johnson bought their earthship in Taos three years ago, climate resilience and sustainable living were high on their list.

It is the antithesis of every ticky-tacky box that is plugged into the grid and feeding utility companies, and that radicalism spoke to us as well.

They also saw potential beyond the garbage.

Jessica said that they turned it into an upscale modern luxury earthship to show the potential of what an earthship can be.

They added a dishwasher and panoramic sauna, but still used the same water to flush their toilets, clean their garden, and hydrate and clean themselves. They say the house protects and nurtures them, so they may sell it, asking under a million dollars.

Earthships, their value, monetarily as well as socially, has just gone through the roof with everybody spending such gargantuan amounts of time at home over the last few years.