Eco Factor: Crushed cars recycled into green dwellings.
Miranda Homes, a start-up, is making a big name in the field of sustainable, cost-effective housing, which they construct using an unconventional material – crushed cars. For this recycled raw material, the company depends on local scrap metal companies that crush junked cars and break them into tiny pieces using massive chippers.
The chipped mixture of materials is them sorted out with the help of a centrifuge, which separates the materials into plastic, aluminum, steel and glass. All the materials are then shipped to their respective processing plants. Recycled steel from steel plants is rolled into giant slabs of varying thickness. Miranda Homes purchases steel studs and uses them in building strong, cost-effective and green homes, which cost anything above $150,000.
The Dark Side:
Processing steel requires a huge amount of energy, which most often doesn’t come from green sources. At the end of the all, the net energy consumed is not much different from that used in constructing an entirely new home.
Via: OregonLive
