Building homes from waste materials?

Builders merchants could be selling building supplies made from garden and industrial waste in the future.
Julee Herdt, a Professor of Architecture, and Kellen Schauermann, former graduate student, have been awarded a patent for their construction system, BioSIPS, for use in building walls, roofs and floors.

The system transforms waste products such as weeds, paper, excess forest products, and industrial hemp into building products used on construction projects.

Based on Herdt’s research at CU Denver with the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory, BioSIPs is a sustainable material, and could be a possible solution for replacing petroleum-based building products.

Herdt said: “The BioSIPs invention actually consumes society’s waste and diverts tons of trash into valuable products for safe, strong, and energy efficient buildings.

“There is great beauty and value in waste materials. It just takes the right processes and methods to find it, and with BioSIPs we’ve invented and now patented these techniques.”