Cape Town - Over the coming weeks, about 100 Greyton homes will be sporting mini-wind turbines with blades made from plastic bottles.
They will be attached to broom handles and can be mounted anywhere on the house. The turbines have USB ports to allow residents to charge their cellphones, LED lights and possibly even a laptop.
It is one of the initiatives of Greyton Transition Town, a non-profit organisation, which has teamed with a company called Miniwind to test in the community.
Greyton is the only transition town in Africa but part of a global movement of about 3 000. Its aim is to create a sustainable, equitable, integrated community that is self-sufficient and focuses on reducing the cost of living while also looking at ways to reduce energy costs.
Nicola Vernon, the chairwoman of Greyton Transition Town, lives in a farmhouse in Greyton built out of straw bales and clay. It is “off the grid”.
Vernon said initially, when she chose to build with clay and straw, there was a perception in the community that it was a step backwards.
But she said when people realised it was material that was widely available and that it provided amazing insulation, they wanted to follow suit.
Many people are now extending their RDP houses using eco-bricks made from plastic bottles and stuffed with anything from chip packets and cling-wrap to sweet wrappers and the plastic around cigarette boxes. These turn waste into a highly insulating building material.
Hendrik Davids, one of a team of eight who built Vernon’s farmhouse, immediately saw the benefits.
He has been extending his home in Heuwelkroon using eco-bricks, which he makes.
“It makes your house warm in winter and cool in summer so you don’t need a lot of electricity,” he says.
There are three houses on the farm, all run off solar, and it is used as a base for educational programmes run with local schoolchildren. Vernon also runs the Greyton farm animal sanctuary where there are an array of rescued pigs, geese and sheep mingling with the dogs and cats at the farm.
Marshall Rinquest, the director of Greyton Transition Town, heads up environmental education and works with children from the surrounding schools.
Part of the Greyton dumpsite has been turned into a green park for the community and has an outdoor classroom built from eco-bricks. The initiative has planted trees and also makes compost, which is sold to the community. The long-term plan is to have more of the town using solar power.
The initiative is working with the municipality and the Industrial Development Corporation to come up with a plan to get the Emil Weder High School in Genadendal, which currently pays R45 000 a month in power bills, to use solar power. This would not only reduce their bill but provide an opportunity to sell surplus power.
Greyton Transition Town has transformed an old school hostel into a 60-bed eco-lodge, which is run as a business to support its work. It has a grey-water reticulation system linked to a permaculture garden.
Rinquest, who is also a UN ambassador for sustainable communities, said the initiative had planted a fruit forest garden with a range of fruit trees, vegetables and medicinal plants.
The initiative has been invited to make a presentation at COP21, the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.
CAPE ARGUS