the three r's

Reuse Recycle and Repurpose

The New Three R’s

cordwood wall similar to what i want. 

        The old three R’s as I knew them had to do with reading writing and arithmetic. Dad’s West Virginian style of three R’s referred to reading writing and Route 21 , which is where the job’s lay in the north of the Ohio river. From West Virginia on straight up through Ohio on Route 21 to Akron and the rubber capital , where at one time half of West Virginia’s population had moved and was working and, they say on a Friday night you could see nothing but taillights and west Virginia plates on cars as they would head home for the weekend  and on early Monday morning , a parade of WV plates could be seen rolling back into town , when the road was the prime north south corridor after being later  replaced by i-77 or the national interstate system in the early 60’s .

    We had family relations in southern Ohio then and would make the trip down St. Rt. 21 and at least 3-4 times per summer my family would load up in the old Chevy Impala station wagon we would head south past the new construction areas and I was able to remember when they were just building the new I-77 interstate. Had I known years later how many miles up and down that road I would pile up for one reason or another as I have made in my life and still will for a long time. It’s a part of me having seen its birth and I imagine it will be here long after I die. I just hope it is only as lonely as I was out there a night or two going from here to there in the middle of the night. No cars and black as a night can get even when you have the bright’s on and can only make out 30 yds. in front of you. Driving into the blackness of the night so dark the stars can’t see to light your way, praying for a car coming the other way to show you that you aren’t the only fool out there going somewhere. That would be nice but highly doubtful we will ever see it that dark on i-77 again. I can remember the dynamite and blasting signs and the detours we would have to take to make as we went on our way around the new construction. Well even today and ever since the road was built there has always been an orange barrel season sprouting up somewhere, as they  are still working on that road and have been continuously for years. You would have thought that they would have figured out how to make the perfect road by now. But then where would all the workers be who depend on it be.  But who knows, maybe someday.

resin and mortar log butt floors

       Anyhow the new three R’s are reuse, repurpose, and recycle, and In effect recycling the old three R phrase into an entirely new meaning. I will start with the first and end with the last as I define each.        Reusing anything is a win- win situation as no more energy is required to use it over again like reusing a water bottle, or you may reuse a full 8 ft. 2x4 as long as it had never been cut, to make it usable again.

      Repurposing is taking something like the water bottle after you have drank out of it, and placing it in a masonry wall and surrounding it with mortar to create dead space, and to also increase the structural integrity of the wall, you are basically creating a second use for a product already made, different from the original use, and still requires no energy and maximizes the carbon holding capacity of the product. Co 2 gases that were created by manufacturing the product for one use, if it is reused again, it then neglects the first use and now becomes a carbon reducer when used as insulation.  The most efficient insulator  is dead air space, the bottles placed in the center of the wall would create permanent forms to honey comb the wall with air pockets making the wall stronger and yet energy efficient. This same wall would be laterally reinforced using firewood pieces placed intermittently to tie both sides of the wall together. This is how I intend to reuse plastic bottles, as an example,  another method of reuse is where they grind tires into mulch to be used in playgrounds, walkways, etc. after the wire is removed in a tire crumbling process. This is an energy reducer and a beneficial reuse of product, requiring some energy to change the material into something else but does create a product that would require much less energy than it did too initially make it and it does keep tires out of landfills. Not all bad, but the product hasn’t really caught on.

another cordwood wall 

     Of course the last product is to recycle. Recycle can be as simple as reducing your waste into paper , steel, aluminum, plastic, or glass , some of these are comingled at recycling centers, and all of it is an effort to reduce the amount of recyclable material ending up in landfills. This last process of recycling usually requires the spent product to be reheated and requires energy to transform it into more aluminum cans, or into new steel products, some glass is now being used in roadways after being heated and rounded and sieved to reduce the size and angular tendency to slash tires etc.. Paper is transformed into cardboard products, and all of these may have multiple uses besides what I have listed. . I also have an old pile of recycled lumber I also intend to use to build this, as I will now call it my farm office addition. This stuff has been lying around the barn long enough and needs someplace fitting to make it do something besides take up space, and would be a nice contrast to the new wood that will be exposed.   

       Well in lieu of a set of plans I decided to inform you that I too intend to use the new three R’s in the construction of my new farm office addition as I proceed along. Whether or not I need to buy new or if I can use used or repurposed will depend on a couple of factors for sure that I can think of offhand.

    One factor might be as in buying windows, and that would be if I could find thermo pane windows in the size I need or can I scale down the size and shape of the openings.  Most of the lumber I intend to supply is going to be cut with a band saw mill out of the tree tops on the farm I have down already, and will be repurposed into the size I need. Being rough sawed will add texture of some pieces while others will be of the finished variety. Now when it comes to plumbing I think I will go with all new as well the electrical part also, but will in effect be of the recycled group as I intend to strip the wiring from the old house trailer part of my current abode and as well the aluminum shell and reduce them to scrap to trade that against the overall cost of new wiring and plumbing. I am building this with the intent of little or no maintenance for at least thirty years. That is a tough job with today’s materials as I think they are all designed to be replaced on twenty year cycles assuming that 95 percent of the people lose their warranties or fail to turn a claim against the product whether it be shingles, tar paper, or whatever that product may be. The manufacturer’s legal ease allows them a lot of flexibility and any payment will be pro-rated based on how many years you have had the product in use. After 29 years and your shingles go bad, you might as well plan on buying new because you will be lucky to find a judge willing to hear the case in the first place if you should decide to sue.

     So some items like the wood will be repurposed, the electric and water and sewer will be new. Also I intend to merge the lower wall construction into a masonry unit capable of supporting the wall loads and also prevent rot of timber prolonging the timber usage, I also intend to incorporate plastic bottles and wood pieces into the foundation to not only improve the aesthetics but to also insulate the inner space from the harmful effects of the cold by creating airspace with plastic bottles we would drink out of normally. Pretty much any way I think I can conserve heat and save money while at the same time creating a thermal efficient structure to be proud of.  Something that is green and hopefully aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and landscaped with the future beauty only to be eagerly anticipated, and appreciated as an acceptable addition to the farm in general.