A Review of the Garbage Warrior Documentary |
2 Comments |
| By Matt Mayer in Entertainment, Reviews, Videos | December 1, 2008 | |
I had a chance recently to review a DVD called Garbage Warrior (trailer above) which is about the gentleman who started the Earthship movement and some of the trials and tribulations he experienced while building his houses. It focuses too on his ideas and techniques for using trash materials (aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles) to create low cost energy efficient housing.
The houses he builds are amazing. They are off the grid houses which are passive solar heated and have greenhouses for food production in them. They deal with their own sewage and they collect water from the roofs to use in the house. They essentially are a one stop house that can be built and then it will live on forever on it’s own devices. They stated on the DVD that with the passive solar design and the thermal mass they are able to keep the house comfortable in the winter with temperatures of 30 below zero. It’s amazing.
I was also amazed in the DVD when they went to assist with tsunami recovery. I won’t spoil that part of the movie, but it’s interesting.
I liked this DVD, although it barely started to quench my thirst for information about the building methods Mike uses. If you have a chance you should check out this movie. I noticed that its available through Netflix, or click over to the movie website and order up a copy. Then donate it to your local library so others can see it!
Now Mike, not all of us can build new Earthships. We need some tips on transitioning our current housing in-place!
One Small Trip said,
We watched this movie a few months ago. Reall good, especially the red tape he had to go through with the re-wordings of the documents, and basically all the hoop jumping to get people to listen to him. The excursions he took to the other nations to help with their disaster relief was really nice to see, and was almost caused tears (of frustration and happiness) at some points.
The one thing that did kind of get under my skin, was how little information on the actual building of the dwellings, and some technical details they mentioned. I almost came away from it feeling that it was a 1.5 hour long infomercial that made me want to go to his site and order the plans or books that are in most cases very expensive. I don’t mean to say the movie isn’t worthwhile, just that I wish there would have been more technical details for other people interested in going off the grid with homes such as his.
Otherwise, kudo’s to the garbage warrior, wish there were many more people like him.
Crafty Green Poet said,
I saw this film at the Edinburgh Film Festival a year or so ago, its inspirational, thanks for the reminder.