Mike Reynolds builds houses from recycled materials. These houses are a symbol of his war against waste. Mike's houses are built using the things that other people throw away. His Earthships (as his houses are called) are beautiful buildings. They are shaped and colored to reflect the fields around them. He uses bottles to create beautiful walls full of light. There are plants everywhere, inside and outside. But the plants and the bottles, like everything else in the Earthships, are not only there for decoration (装饰).
Every single material in an Earthship is carefully chosen. Old car tires are used to build strong outside walls. The rubber protects the houses from the cold winds in winter. These walls are built at the back of the house. The walls at the front of the house are built from metal cans or glass bottles. They're held together with earth from the ground around them.
The beautiful bottle walls are built to the south to give light during the day. The larger front windows heat the house. They also create perfect conditions for growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables because the plants are protected against the bad weather. When you live in an Earthship, you don't need anything from the outside world. You grow your own food. You get electricity from the sun and wind, and you get water from the rain and snow.
Mike and some other Earthship builders use their ability and experience to help people all over the world. In 2010, they visited Haiti in the earthquake. They taught people there how to build safe, new homes quickly and cheaply from materials that they could find around them. Mike points out that waste is always there because we humans create it—but we can also learn to recycle it.
