Recycling for Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency
I’m a natural born scrounger. I’ve always seen opportunity and possibilities in a pile of junk. It’s almost an obsession – my only vice 
Even before recycling became fashionable I was out there sifting through piles of junk while friends tried desperately to merge with the landscape and become invisible in order to not be seen with me.
Scrounging for useful junk and recycling that junk into useful stuff is, for me, a key element of being self-sufficient-ish. It’s not just about saving money, it’s also about reducing consumption for sustainability. Why buy new materials when recycled does the job? Saving the embodied energy in discarded products, especially metal objects with their high energy inputs, makes a very significant contribution to sustainability.
An old truck differential/axle assembly and discarded windmill are “re-birthed” as a wind-generator. After a few minor teething troubles this windmill to wind generator conversion went on to perform reliably for several years (at least) until we sold the property.
An old trampoline frame covered with recycled chicken-wire re-birthed as a movable chicken run for young chicks.
Old top-loading washing machine cabinets make great stackable cages for poultry – often the lid will function as the door – hinged and ready to go!
Not shown in the photo is a small door in the chicken wire to enable access to the chicken pen. The pen is amazingly light and can be moved onto fresh ground very easily. Not shown also is the bottom of the washing machine cabinet now covered in recycled chicken-wire. The camera-shy hen and chickens are hiding behind the cage door.
When we bought the property we’re now on the previous owner offered to have the farm’s dump cleaned up; old vehicles and machinery crushed and taken away because he saw it as a possible impediment to the sale. I saw the dump as a resource and insisted, much to the seller’s delight, that the junk MUST stay!
Have you got any recycling or re-birthing success stories or tips? I’d like to hear them and so would other readers.
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I would like to hear more about your Windmill conversion.
I’m about to do the same – however I am thinking of using a wormgear gearbox (has similar offset as a Southern Cross “Z” gearbox) and have the output shaft come down the center of the tower (instead of the pump rod) where I’ll gear it up to the required RPM and run one or two 24 volt (wind) generators (depending on wind speed).
I have spent many hours up the top of windmill towers & now have the time to do this project.
Any ideas or helpful advice would be appreciated!
Best regards
Paul
Hey Paul… The idea you expressed is exactly what I first did. The advantages in my mind were mounting the alternator lower for ease of mods/maintenance etc and avoiding slip rings for power transmission but it backfired. What I found was that the torque generated was easily enough to turn the whole mill out of the wind despite the Comet mill’s very large tail. Hope this helps.
Hey!
Nice blog in deed! And i am a junk scrounger too xD. I live in switzerland, in a very wealthy region. In switzerland, all the things you want to discard must go in a centralized place, often by small regional districts, or villages, for recycling.
I love to spend my time here, because in a wealthy region, people trash A LOT of perfectly good stuff. Here is a non-exhaustive list of my findings :
- 2 typing machines in perfect conditions (Hermes)
- a very comfortable couch (i threw a curtain on it so it is pretty, and utterly comfortable)
- planks, roofing, building materials, crates (i built a backyard shed)
- vintage tools (they were utterly rusted. drop them in water bucket for 1-2 week and voilà the rust peels off and leaves a nice patina)
- my whole workshop built from scratch
- a WHOLE wall of working speakers and woofers. Over time accumulation^^
- a TV (the fuse was missing…….)
- a wheelcart (perfect for working in the backyard, moving dirt, wood, etc…)
- a whole library of books dumped once (very misc books)
- all sorts of kitchenware, decoration…
And i know a man who does that too! He has a WAREHOUSE filled with everything still working that he found.
And also, i realized that when you overtake some sort of project with your salvadged items, you always have the perfect amount of goods (up to only one bolt and nut left) to achieve it.
But still, i could take way more stuff if i had the surface to stockpile it. I only take what i may need, otherwise it becomes an illness of accumulation. Don’t go to the other extreme of consumerism! And also, i only take stuff that looks nice and will blend in the house.
I also am planning to go self-sufficient when college will be over. You still need money to get lifted up and buy a piece of land. Living in a yurt looks really cool to me, and i am planning to live in a van during college.
Peace out!
Udjee
Darcy,
With regard to your rooftop hot water polypipe system:
Where is the header tank? Being low pressure, there must be a header tank – but your photos don’t show it.
Jem Products of Briabane/Ipswich seem to have gone out of business. I’m looking for a tank about 50 litres with 4 ports (in, out, + 2 for circulating water) – made of Copper preferably (as used with wood stoves). But who could make one?
Peter
Peter, not sure where you could have a hot water tank fabricated but I recently did a poly pipe hot water system on my daughter’s place and used a commercially available hot water tank (second hand). Just added a tee at inlet and outlet and circulating pump and it works fine without additional ports.