Helen Bamford
RESIDENTS of Greyton are turning rubbish into bricks, and a local high school is planning on cutting its electricity bill from R45 000 to nothing as they move to using solar power.
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 so residents will be able to charge their cellphones and LED lights, and possibly even laptops.
It is one of the initiatives of Greyton Transition Town, a non-profit organisation which has teamed up 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 and looking at ways of reducing energy costs.
Nicola Vernon, chairperson of Greyton Transition Town, lives in a farmhouse in Greyton built out of straw bales and clay. It is completely off the grid. She said that 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 good 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, which tackles waste at the same time.
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 he makes himself.
“It makes your house warm in winter and cool in summer, so you don’t need so much electricity,” he says.
There are three houses on the farm, all run on solar, and it is used as a base for educational programmes run with local schoolchildren. Vernon also runs the Greyton farm animal sanctuary, so there is an array of rescued pigs, geese and sheep mingling with cats and dogs 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 makes compost which is sold back 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, on to 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 which is 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.