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Lane Meyer
Sonia Saheb
Environment and Politics Section 2
24 October 2014
Film Annotation 3 (1039 words): Garbage Warrior
Garbage Warrior, a film directed by Oliver Hodge and released in 2007, follows the
eccentric architect Michael Reynolds. After receiving a degree in architecture, Reynolds felt that
it did nothing to help the Earth, so he developed an idea for a style self-sustaining houses that he
later called “Earthship Biotecture.” The main goal of the film is to present Reynolds’ houses that
power themselves using solar panels and windmills, grow their own food in greenhouses, collect
water on the roof, heat and cool themselves without a heating system or air conditioning, and
store their own septic waste. These houses are constructed out of garbage such as beer cans, glass
bottles, and tires and have no mortgage payment and no utility bill. After 30 years of obsessively
building Earthship communities, he claims he hasn’t even scratched the surface of what’s
possible. A great deal of the film goes into how Reynolds successfully took on the New Mexico
legal system in order to pass legislature allowing him to experiment building houses on test sites.
Reynolds claims experimentalism is the catalyst for new ideas and improvements.
Experimentalism is stressed throughout the movie because Reynolds’ whole career is based on it.
The film causes the viewer to question modern day bureaucracy and question what really makes
a house a house.
In addition to presenting Michael Reynolds’ creations, Garbage Warrior deeply
discusses environmental problems. The film deals with the problem of overstuffed landfills. The
Earthships provide a pretty unique solution because instead of having trash sit in landfills,
Reynolds builds houses out of it. Garbage Warrior touches on global warming because the
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houses do not use oil or gas, so there are no carbon emissions, and instead, the houses emit
oxygen through the greenhouses. The Earthships address the problem of food shortages because
people grow their own food. This may not seem so significant in the United States but it would
be beneficial in third world countries. The film also discusses some political problems such as
how the government cannot see beyond the rulebook sometimes. The New Mexico board of
architects took away Reynolds’ license because he broke the rules even though his houses are
environmentally friendly and people are willing to live in the houses. Also, Garbage Warrior
presents a pretty negative statement about bureaucracy. At one point, Reynolds calls it “endless
horseshit," because so much man power went into the process of drafting the bill, convincing the
Senators, and the three proposals, when he ended up passing the legislature anyway.
It was interesting how the Earthships were conceived to help people and communities,
yet because they went beyond the normality, Reynolds wasn’t allowed to build them at all.
Obviously, the houses were breaking the rules because they were “experimental houses” where
the sewage ran under the living room and the walls were built of trash. I also thought it was
interesting how the movie showed him helping out the Andaman Islands after a tsunami killed
around three quarters of one tribe and leveled their village. The townspeople needed shelter,
clean water, and sanitation, so his design was perfect because there was so much loose rubble
and people were willing to help. The movie shows this part of the film because it is an amazing
charitable act, and it demonstrates how climate change is worsening storms.
Although Garbage Warrior was well made and true to itself, it had its flaws. I was not
convinced that the houses were 100% safe and sanitary. First, the film really does not go into the
technicalities of the septic system that is internalized within the house. I guess it is assumed that
the houses don’t have indoor plumbing because one of the workers says he goes years without
flushing a toilet, but the viewer does not know for sure. Second, they failed to mention if the
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trash is sanitized before they build with it or if it has any dangerous chemicals. One would have
to think that the cans and bottles may come with mold or bacteria. These two left-out issues are
made more serious when I realized that the food is grown in extremely close proximity to the
sewage and trash.
The film basically just presents Reynolds method to the viewer while narrating his
company’s ups and downs. There really is no suggested corrective action because it does not tell
the viewer to buy or build an Earthship. Garbage Warrior leaves it to the viewer to formulate his
or her own opinion on sustainable houses. Nonetheless, the movie made me ask myself whether I
could live in a house like that and be so self-sufficient (I could not).
After watching Garbage Warrior, I am curious to see if the beer cans, bottles, and tires
release any toxic chemicals. I found an article on the website for the Environment and Human
Health, Inc. called “Artificial Turf: Exposures to Ground Up Rubber Tires.” The article states
that recycled tires used in artificial turf fields contains toxic chemicals. These include a skin and
eye irritant called benzothiazole, a recognized carcinogen called butylated hydroxyanisole, and a
severe irritant based on human and animal studies called n-hexadecane (Artificial Turf). The
Earthships are made with recycled tires so it can be assumed that they contain these same
chemicals. I also found an article entitled “Reusing Plastic Bottles Can Pose Serious Health
Hazards” that says that recycled plastic bottles contain a chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA) that
“interferes with the body’s natural hormonal messaging system” and can “wreak havoc on
children’s developing systems” (Fujan). Now obviously the recycled bottles are being put in the
walls so the residents are not drinking from them. Nevertheless, it is scary to think that the
bottles still contain this chemical. For these reasons alone, I would never live in a house that was
made out of tires and bottles even if there was a layer of dirt separating them from me.
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Works Cited
"Artificial Turf: Exposures to Ground Up Rubber Tires." EHHI.org. Environment and Human
Health, Inc., Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/health_effects.shtml>.
Fujan, Regina. "How Reusing Plastic Bottles Can Be a Health Risk."About.com. Web. 24 Oct.
2014. <http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/plastic_bottles.htm>.