ECO NEWS

Building from Waste

As part of a USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) project a building has been just been constructed in Armenia using what has up to now been considered a waste product. Built in October 2004 in Jurahovit village in the Ararat Valley was built to be used as a cost effective cold storage facility and has been built primarily of bales of straw. Straw is typically seen as a waste product and burned contributing to air pollution.

The vision of the project was to u se the principles of sustainable agriculture to help farmers be more profitable, and they produced a building that can be build with no special labor skills, material costs 30% less than stone construction, labor is 80-100% less than stone construction and is 320% more efficient than 10cm of styrofoam. The village farmers will store fruits and vegetables in the cold storage and sell them later in the season.

For more information contact:

Paul Sommers USDA Armenia

Tel: (3741) 560 014

E-mail: sommers@usda.am