PUC-MG 2015

THE HOUSE MADE FROM 4,000 VIDEO CASSETTES AND TWO TONNES OF JEANS

 

Remember video cassettes, those black boxes that played pictures? Rendered useless by DVDs, they have
found a new purpose. Some 4,000 of them have built a house, along with two tonnes of denim jeans, 2,000 used carpet tiles and 20,000 toothbrushes. The result is Britain’s first house made almost entirely from rubbish. Based in Brighton, the house opened its doors last June and is a live research project, acting as a test-bed for new windows, insulation and construction materials.

 

The construction industry currently discards 20% of everything it uses; meaning that for every five houses
built enough waste is generated to build one extra house. The aim of the project, led by University of Brighton senior lecturer Duncan Baker-Brown and endorsed by Grand Designs TV show presenter Kevin McCloud, is to show how low-carbon homes can be built cheaply and quickly using waste and surplus material.

 

Local students, apprentices, builders, schoolchildren and volunteers were all involved in building the house
using concrete blocks, wood, vinyl banners, pieces of polystyrene and bicycle inner tubes. Its kitchen worktop is made from old coffee cups and grinds, its staircase from compressed thrown away paper and the lights were on board a ship being sent to get scrapped in Bangladesh.

 

As the cost of raw materials continues to rise, the UK’s first A rated energy-efficient building made from
waste, may be the first of many.
(http://www.theguardian.com. Adaptado. Acesso: 31/01/2015)

 

The word they in “they have found a new purpose” (paragraph 1) refers to

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