It’s So Simple It’s Genius: Green Affordable Homes From Landfill Scrap

by Jobby McGillicuddy · View Comments

Dan Phillips of Huntsville, TX has built an amazing home. It’s Dr. Seussian and is built using reused and recycled materials. It’s warm, organic, and entirely delightful. 85% of the home is built with items that were heading to the landfill or burn pile. He runs The Phoenix Commotion with his wife Marsha and their goal is to spark a movement helping the working poor build homes for $20k-50k.

People enrolled the program would be required to spend $500 on tools, have a regular job, and no or good credit. They’re paired up with a local building professional and build their home using left over local and scrap material that would otherwise be heading to the landfill.

Dan’s motto is “It’s so simple, it’s genius”. I think that just about nails it. Dan’s a genius with a smart idea and I hope to see it catch on everywhere. We’ll be following this one.

Link [The Phoenix Commotion]

Photo: Hollywood Frame Gallery

Tagged as: Affordable Housing, Dan Phillips, Green Building, Home Building, Homes, Huntsville Texas, Working Poor

melanie Gabbai

Dan your a genius with a heart!
I hope you have inspired others to follow in your footsteps....
We really could benefit from someone like you here in Israel where housing is expensive and restricted. And there unfortunatey is no lack of garbage which has been accumulated over the last 60 years. Environment has not been a govt. priority !

Prefab Green Homes

This is definitely something that will attract a new niche market when it comes to green home design. It's great to see the various ways green homes are being designed and built. Many of the options today are much less expensive than they used to be.

As green homes gain popularity over time, hopefully we will continue to see the costs associate with building these homes decrease. This way more people will be able to afford these types of homes.

Timothy