Aaron Harmon
Jonathon Cluck
Annotation #3
11/25/14
Word Count: 1136
Garbage Warrior Annotation
The title of this particular film is Garbage Warrior. The director of this film is Oliver
Sessions Hodge, and this film was released 2007.
The central argument of this film is that finding ways to reduce and reuse the amount of
material American’s throw away every year can help conserve energy. Humans are very
wasteful creatures. Almost everything we do generates waste. Not only are humans wasteful,
but the entirety of modern day society is built around this wasteful nature. Nowhere is this more
prevalent then the United States of America. Even though there is a large recycling movement in
America, the majority of plastic bottles and other recyclable products end up in garbage dumps
every day. This leads to an overall build-up of reusable materials in landfills. This adherent
waste of material ultimately leads to more product to be manufactured from a non-recycled
source. For Michael Reynolds, a proud biotecture, this sort of waste is completely unacceptable.
Reynolds argues that what people perceive to be trash can very easily be used to build fully
functional homes. As a biotecture, Reynolds takes items other people perceived to be trash and
use them to build homes. Examples of such materials include beer cans and tires. This type of
architecture is highlighted throughout the entirety of the film, and is used as the principal
evidence that recycling this material can conserve energy. Each earthship that Michael Reynolds
builds is completely off-the-grid. That means that it does not need electricity to provide heating
for the house, or other utilities. The house is completely self-sufficient. This means the energy
footprint of this house is nonexistent and if these earthships become more widespread, then the
energy footprint of America would similarly begin to dissipate.
The environmental implications that are addressed in this film are the necessity for reuse
to curb energy consumption in America. Further, energy conservation is directly linked to global
warming. The less energy we use, the less pollution is created, which means less Carbon
Dioxide is created and released into the atmosphere which causes the greenhouse effect, which
means global warming will occur at a slower rate. The film also shows how these earthships are
practical in developing countries as well. One specific example was when India was devastated
by an earthquake and Michael and his team showed up to help rebuild. They were able to build
the equivalent of three years’ worth of earthships in America in the span of fourteen days in
India. This was a result of the political differences between the two nations. Besides the
environmental problems this film draws out there are also several political problems depicted as
well. For instance, the film shows just how much influence electricity power plants have on the
government. When Michael was trying to put together a bill to allow for the experimentation of
housing he was met with a torrent of opposition. On the day he was to have his bill be voted on,
an individual filibustered the meeting so the bill would have never reached the floor. It is a sign
of the current political inertia that is in place in the United States.
The parts of the film I found most persuasive were the parts where Michael talked about
the science behind his earthships. From the audience standpoint this helps give the earthships a
more credible base. It gives the concept physical grounding in the sense that the audience now
has a simplistic understanding of how it works. This simplistic understanding goes a long way in
convincing an individual if an idea is feasible or possible. Without this understanding the
individual would just as well believe that magic made the earthships self-reliant, and magic is not
as persuasive as reason. Further, the more Michael talked about his earthships, the more
passionate Michael become. When someone is truly passionate about a topic, it helps make them
appear to be an expert on the topic. Further, Michael was a fully licensed architect prior to his
experimentation with earthships so he is fully qualified when it comes to assessing house
designs. Both of these reasons were helping build Michael’s credibility.
I was not convinced by the parts where Michael stated that these homes are sustainable.
These homes are not sustainable, but rather one solution to help make landfills disappear.
Michael’s whole idea is reliant of the notion that humans will generate waste materials. Now
ideally as humanity moves forward into the future it will become less waste intensive. However,
this would mean that there would be less supplies for the construction of earthships, and it would
be completely irrational to create waste just to build additional earthships.
This film does not call for a specific course of action to be taken, but it is evident the
general direction that the director and Michael are pushing for the United States to follow. The
message of the entire documentary can be essentially boiled down into the notion that every
material can be reused. All waste can be reused in one sense or another. This does not
necessarily mean that each and every individual must build their own earthship and live off the
grid, but what it does mean is that we should each take our part to help make sure we recycle
everything we can to help reduce the amount of new materials needed for society. It is small
steps like this that add up to make a big difference in the big schemes of things.
Upon viewing this film I was intrigued to learn more about the nature of how products
are recycled in the United States. According to the United States Environmental Protection
Agency a total of 32 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2012, but only a maximum of
nine percent of that waste ended up being recycled (Plastics). This just goes to show just how
much progress there is yet to be made on the recycling effort in the United States. Further,
plastics are not the only products that are being recycled in the United States. According to the
American Chemistry Council a process known as Energy Recovery is currently being practiced
in the United States. This process takes solid waste and converts it into renewable energy.
Currently thirteen percent of the United States solid waste is being recovered for energy and is
the equivalent of 28.6 billion barrels of crude oil (Plastics and Energy).
Works Cited
"Garbage Warrior - Sustainable Housing." Garbage Warrior. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Plastics and Energy Recovery | Converting Waste to Renewable Energy." Plastics and Energy
Recovery | Converting Waste to Renewable Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Plastics, Common Wastes & Materials." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 Nov.
2014