RECYCLING ECO-VILLAGE - THE PROJECT
As a significant project to help it towards the goal of eliminating waste in Orkney by 2025 Orkney ZeroWaste want to construct and operate a ‘Zero Carbon recycling Village’, which will recycle and re-process various waste streams and offer a substantial waste education and awareness programme.
The Zero Carbon recycling Village will contain:
Garden workshop for composting and shredding organic waste, and making gardening goods from reclaimed materials
Furniture workshop making new furniture from scrap and processing old floor coverings, mattresses and other household goods
Building workshop for architectural salvage and recycling of C&D waste
Electrical workshop refurbishing and/or dismantling WEEE
Visitors’ centre with shop, café, permanent display/exhibition and a teaching/meeting room for waste reduction education.
The 5 building Village will be constructed using the ‘Earthship’ technology, with recycled waste materials including car tyres, bottles and cans, recycled timber and windows, and shredded plastics, paper and sheep’s wool for insulation. The village will be completely self-sufficient, serviced with renewable energy sources, a rainwater collection system, and organic water treatment systems. The site will be landscaped and use gardens to demonstrate various waste reduction and reuse applications as well as to grow its own food crops.
Construction of the village will be kept simple, hands-on and community-led, with discounted equipment, materials and services and significant volunteer labour. Operation of the Village once constructed will involve a combination of paid staff, volunteers and trainees, providing supported employment, skills acquisition and work experience opportunities for a variety of people currently finding it difficult to work in Orkney.
Construction
Earthships are beautiful earth-sheltered autonomous buildings made of used car tyres rammed with earth, arranged in three-sided modules.
 Tyres being delivered at the French Earthship site
Rammed earth tyre walls
Reclaimed double- or triple glazed windows are used to complete the open end of the structure, facing south to maximum sunlight and admit light and heat. The roof of the Earthship is heavily insulated. The load bearing tyre walls hold up the roof and provide dense thermal mass to store and radiate heat. When built into a slope, or ‘buried’ with piled earth, the Earthship benefits from the stable ground temperature.
The newly constructed residential Earthship home in France
Internal, non-load-bearing walls are made of a "honey comb" of recycled aluminium and steel cans, and glass and plastic bottles, separated by concrete and are plastered with adobe and clay.
 Glass bottle internal walls create a colourful decor
Earthships create and handle all utilities, power, water supply and treatment, and climate. They collect rainwater on the roof, channelling it through a silt filter and into a cistern, for any household activities except flushing toilets. Greywater is organically treated within the Earthship through a botanical cell, using plants and filters to clean it and blackwater, from the toilets, can either be directed through a conventional septic tank, reed-beds and wetlands, or exterior botanical planter cells.
 The internal 'corridor in the French Earthship - still to be planted up.
Earthships collect energy using photovoltaic panels and wind turbines to generate DC energy, which is stored in batteries and inverted for AC use to run all household appliances. Electrical energy should not be needed for heating or cooling, as the interior climate of an Earthship is kept constant through thermal mass and passive solar heating and cooling.
Each of the Recycling Village Earthship buildings will be designed according to the demands of the particular activities to be undertaken. The 5 buildings of the Village will require 3,600m2of ground space, which together with the renewable energy provision of 4,000m2, outside ground space of 2,400m2 and 2,000m2 of parking facilities, gives the entire project an estimated 12,000m2 or approximately 3 acres of land requirement.
An artist's impression of what the Orkney ZeroWaste Recycling Village might look like.
Where will the Recycling Village be?
Initial criteria to determine the most appropriate location for the proposed Recycling Village included a central location, good access with a bus route; and a south-facing site. Other factors considered include space requirements; suitability for renewable energy sources; visual impact and promotional visibility; potential local nuisance; conflicting uses; planning issues and land ownership. This is still being investigated, but watch this space………
How will it be built?
Earthship builds are usually constructed using mass community labour for capacity-building, and Orkney ZeroWaste wants to encourage as much volunteer contribution as possible to maximise the sense of communal ownership of the Zero Carbon recycling Village. However, construction will need to take place as quickly as possible. This will require a dedicated Project Manager who will oversee the project to completion. All 5 of the buildings should be constructed to a weather tight state, in a 4-6 month building season, between May and September/October. An expert Earthship building ‘crew’ will be on-site for 6 weeks with a local trainee crew. The ‘local crew’ would then take over for the remaining construction period and continue, with trainees and volunteers, through to completion, with sub-contractors helping with plumbing, electrical wiring, finishing, fixtures and fitting.
If you are interested in being involved in the construction of the recycling village, send us an email through the 'Contact us' page to register as a potential earthship builder!
How will it be funded?
The capital costs for the construction of the 5 building Recycling Village have been estimated - based on discussions with Earthship experts, comparisons with other Earthship builds and calculations from materials and labour - at around £550,000, excluding the larger renewable energy systems. On top of this, planning, consultation and land acquisition, and equipping the buildings will cost a further £75,000, bringing the total to £625,000. The renewable energy provision has an estimated capital cost of £120,000, giving a combined project capital cost of £745,000. While all avenues are being investigated as potential capital grant funding sources for the construction of the Recycling Village, these could include the Big Lottery Growing Community Assets fund and the European Regional Development Fund. Application will also be made to Scottish Executive recycling funding initiatives and small grant funders. Significant discounts from local materials and service providers, as well as local cash donation support, and income from trainees and visitors are anticipated.
Benefits of Building
Benefits solely from the construction of the Zero Carbon recycling Village include the creation of a fully self-sufficient, sustainable eco-build, using at least 130 tonnes waste material diverted from disposal. Construction will increase community and social capital by training 200 people, and up to 5% of the population directly involved in hands-on volunteering. The Village will provide purpose-built waste reuse and recycling facilities and a venue for waste awareness and reduction education and demonstration.
Operations
With the overall aim to eliminate waste in Orkney by 2025, operation of the Zero Carbon recycling Village project has a combination of several objectives:
Firstly to reduce waste in Orkney by physically taking material out of the current disposal stream, and to process recyclables here in Orkney currently transported south - reducing CO2 emissions and resource usage and replacing imported goods.
Secondly, but equally importantly, the Zero Carbon recycling Village also aims to educate people about waste, demonstrating to individuals, families, schools, businesses and organisations the practical things can be done, within the home and workplace, to reduce the amount of waste produced and utilise whatever waste cannot be avoided.
Finally, the Zero Carbon recycling Village will also offer several full-time jobs, as well as providing supported employment placements, training positions, work experience and volunteering opportunities in a safe and attractive environment.
Operations of the project will avoid duplicating existing Orkney Island Council services or facilities; target specific waste streams and types; and not act in direct competition to existing businesses in Orkney. The operations will also require minimal initial revenue funding – aiming to be self funding within a 2 year period and growing organically over time.
There has been constant communication with the Local Authority about the services and facilities that should be offered at the Village that will feed into undersubscribed OIC recycling operations and take problem materials that are otherwise not covered by OIC services. There has also been discussions with SEPA about the various proposed reuse/recycling activities and the licensing and exemption requirements.
Information, suggestions and support have been gathered at workshops and presentations held at primary schools, Community Councils, church and youth groups, Development Trusts, Isles Forum, individual businesses and at general public meetings over the past 12 months. Businesses involved in waste diversion initiatives have been consulted, and precautions taken to avoid duplicating their activities, or impacting on their operations. Where possible, Zero Carbon recycling Village activities will aim to actively promote and supplement these operations, as part of the objective to eliminate waste in Orkney. Information and advice has been collected from other community recycling projects in Scotland and elsewhere in the country undertaking similar operations.
Base-line data has been gathered about waste production in Orkney and the current disposal routes and strategies. This has provided estimates of the types and quantities of materials that could be directly diverted and reused or processed through the Zero Carbon recycling Village, or targeted in waste reduction education and promotional activities of the Village.
While the demand for many recycled second-hand goods is often low, with increasing awareness of the environmental issues surrounding waste production and disposal, and CO2 emissions from transportation, it is anticipated that this demand will grow. The education and awareness raising aspects of the Zero Carbon recycling Village will be self-supporting in increasing public willingness to purchase second-hand, make informed choices about products and materials, and actively participate in and support the manufacturing, retailing and educational activities of the Village.
The Centre Manager and two supervisors for the workshop units will be the core staff. Additionally there will be a chef/cook (part-time), kitchen/serving staff (2-5 part-time and seasonal) and exhibition/shop/guiding staff (1-4 part-time and seasonal). Supported employees, trainees and volunteers will look after the workshops and Village site.
Again, if you are interested in being involved in the operation of the OZ Zero Carbon recycling Village, contact us and let us know!
Orkney ZeroWaste anticipates that capital costs for the building of the Zero Carbon recycling Village will be met with grants, but also that there will be a need to have some initial starting assistance with operating the various recycling, training and educational activities. However, the Zero Carbon recycling Village will ultimately need to make enough income to cover the operational costs. If, in the future, income does exceed basic financial requirements, then profits would be used to improve and up-date the facility, increase waste diversion, and put back into the community by adding to the social capital of Orkney.
The operational costs required of running the Zero Carbon recycling Village will include building, equipment and technology maintenance; collection costs; salaries; licences and insurances; office consumables; raw materials for processing; food goods for the café; advertising and promotion; and continually up-grading and adding to exhibition and educational materials. Income will be derived from sales, waste diversion grants; sales from the café and shop; fees from collections and drop-offs; visitor fees; donations; teaching, training and employment grants and facility hire fees.
Benefits of Operating
Initial positive outcomes of the project in the first year of operation include approximately 155 tonnes of waste diverted from disposal; 20 tonnes of CO2 emission avoided by reducing waste transportation; at least 4 conventional jobs and 6 supported positions will be created; there will also be up to 8 training places and at least 30 volunteering opportunities. The Village will cater for school visits and business seminars, research projects and around 5,000 visitors. These are initial figures for the operations at the Recycling Village, and are anticipated to grow over time, as more activities are undertaken, the range of materials recycled increased, and there is more awareness of the services and facilities offered at the Village through advertising and marketing. Additionally, the Village will provide public education and awareness about reducing waste and sustainable living. It will help disadvantaged households, individuals, charities, local community groups by providing donated or heavily discounted materials, goods, equipment and IT.
The Zero Carbon recycling Village will benefit all of the people of Orkney, both directly - in the facilities and services it offers - and in terms of the wider reputation and regard in which the County is held. It will provide a significant tourist attraction in Orkney, increasing visitor numbers and adding to general economic development and growth, and a positive environmental impact in reduced waste and CO2 emissions.
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