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Home Mixes Mixers Forms Construction Domes & Vaults Tests Starting A Business

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IntroductionWhat is Papercrete?The Environmental Bonus

The Job Bonus

Hands On Current Projects About Us Contact Us Acknowledgements Get Yours

Clyde T. Currysimaginative designs at

Eves Garden.

INTRODUCTION

Living In Paper is a detailed, up-to-date source of information about using wastepaper for affordable, sustainable housing. In the United States, we discard enoughpaper each year to build a wall 48 feet high around the entire perimeter of thecountry. Even though about 45 percent of discarded paper is recycled annually, 55percent or 48 million tons of paper is thrown away or goes into the landfills. Figuring

conservatively, it takes about fift een trees to make a ton of paper. That means that720 million trees are used once and then buried in a landfill each year. We areexperimenting with ways to turn this prodigious amount of waste into low-cost,high-value sustainable housing.

Given the skyrocketing costs of building materials & construction, and the pressingneed for homes, it is just a matter of time before waste paper will begin to take itsplace as an acceptable and even desirable residential construction material.

See our newest building project under Current Projects!

EVENTS ON PAPER:What: Papercrete Summer- a six-week full-

immersion building & design course.Where:Trinity Mountains, Northern CaliforniaWhen:Starting July 3 rd, 2005Details:Contact Joyce Plath

To the greatest degree possible, we obtain our informationfrom f irst-hand observation, interviews with experts,experimentation, engineering research and actual construction.However, formulas and methods evolve and change as welearn more, and any material can be dangerous if mixed orinstalled improperly. Therefore, please read this Disclaimer.

The living room and dining room in ZachRabon's boomerang-shaped 3200 sq. ft.

papercrete home.

WHAT IS PAPERCRETE?

There are a number of ways to make construction material from paper. The generic term for themethod described here is "papercrete". There are a number of variations of papercrete, such asfibrous concrete or fibercrete, fibrous cement, padobe and fidobe. See more about these variationsunder Mixes.

Papercrete is a t ricky term. The name seems to imply a mix ofpaper and concrete, hence paper-crete. But more accurately,only the Portland cement part of concrete is used in the mix -if used at all. Arguably, it could have been called"paperment." Papercrete may be mixed in many ways.Different types of papercrete contain 50-80 percent waste

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Lex Terry shows how light his block is.

Papercrete can be sculpted into anyshape.

Individuals and small contractors canget into papercrete.

paper! Up to now, there are no hard and fast rules, butrecommended standards will undoubtedly be established inthe future. The basic constituents are water and nearly anykind of paper. Cardboard, glossy magazine stock, advertisingbrochures, junk mail or just about any other type of "mixed(lower) grade" paper is acceptable. Some types of paper

work better than others, but all types work.. Newsprint is best. Waterproofed paper and cardboard,such as butcher paper, beer cartons, etc. are harder to break down in water. Catalogs, magazinesand other publications are fine in and of themselves, but some have a stringy, rubbery, sticky spine,which is also water resistant. Breaking down this kind of material in the mixing process can't be donevery well. Small fragments and strings of these materials are almost always present in the final mix.When using papercrete containing the unwanted material in a finish, such as in stucco or plaster, theunwanted fragments sometimes show up on the surface, but this is not a serious problem.Practitioners simply flick out the of fending pieces as theyapply the finish.

Papercrete additives can be: Portland cement, sand, dirt,clay, glass, or even "fly ash" - an ash at one time freelyemitted into the atmosphere - now at least partially capturedfrom power plant smoke stacks. We are experimenting withpowdered glass, rice hull ash, Styrofoam and other additives.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL BONUS

The environment sends papercrete Valentines. Using papercrete in construction:

Incentivizes the recycling of waste paper, especially in communities with no recyclingservices.Saves landfill space.Keeps paper processing & printing chemicals out of t he water table.Saves trees and other construction resources, which would have been used in place ofpapercrete for walls and roof.Saves additional trees and other construction resources, which would have been used to"build out" or f inish the interior and exterior of the structure.

Saves more than 50 percent of the energy to heat and cool the structure for the lifetime ofthe structure.Provides new construction jobs.Provides low-cost, sustainable housing.

There are no harmful by-products or excessive energy use inthe production of papercrete. While it can be argued thatPortland cement is not environmentally friendly, it is not usedin all types of papercrete, and when it is, it represents a fairlysmall percentage of the cured material by volume. One of themost advantageous properties of papercrete is the way paperfibers hold Portland cement - or perhaps the way Portlandcement adheres to paper fibers. When the water added to

the paper and Portland cement drains from the mix, it comesout almost completely clear. There is no messy and eco-unfriendly cement sediment left on the ground, running intowaterways, etc. Papercrete can be produced using solarenergy. The only power needed is for mixing - and pumpingwater. I ts R-Value is rated between 2.0 and 3.0 per inch.

Since walls in a one or two-story house will be 12-16 inches thick, the long-term energy savings ofbuilding with papercrete will be a bonanza for the homeowner and the environment.

THE JOB BONUS

There will be a positive impact on employment in areas producing papercrete. Homes and other

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buildings of up to 3300 sq. ft . have been built with papercrete for about $25/sq.ft. That doesn'tinclude labor, but even when labor is factored in, papercrete homes can be built, with all theconveniences, for twenty to thirty percent less than conventional housing. The preparation andinstallation of papercrete does not require significant outlays of capital or a great deal of additionaltraining. Individuals and new or existing small construction enterprises can add papercrete to theirbusinesses for very little extra money or time. Papercrete batch plants, for building entire sub-developments, are in the prototype stages now and will be available soon. These operations willcost more, but st ill be within reach for the small sub-contractor.

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