GAYSPORT, Ohio — Most families throw out their trash as soon as possible.

        Candice and Jay Warmke are building a house out of theirs.

        The five-room, 1,650-square-foot house of tires, cans and bottles is expected to be complete in 2004.

Candice Warmke mixes mud for the interior walls of her “trash house” in Gaysport, Ohio. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        “We want to utilize resources wisely and try to get people to think differently,” Mrs. Warmke said. “The idea of this house is to realize that there is not an unlimited amount of resources.”

        The house is considered to be “Earthship” style, a phrase coined by its designer, New Mexico architect Michael Reynolds. Every Earthship starts with the same set of plans, but builders add their own touches such as the number of rooms or solar panels.

        Mr. Reynolds' co-worker Alix Woolsey said as many as 1,000 Earthships have been built, including a 10,000-square-foot house in Colorado owned by actor Dennis Weaver.

        The Warmke house is being built in this town about 60 miles east of Columbus. Its walls are made from 1,100 tires filled with compacted earth, as well as cans and bottles.

        The tires are delivered for free from contractors cleaning up illegal dumps. The Warmkes collect cans and bottles from trash bins and roadsides.

        Support rods are driven through the tires, which Mr. Warmke says provide stability.

        “It's almost a sense of security,” he told The Columbus Dispatch. “In a regular home, you don't notice how things are shifting. This feels safe and solid and impenetrable.”

        The couple spend most of their time in Dade City, Fla., where Mrs. Warmke is president of the Women's Peacepower Foundation, a group that gives grants to women involved in community improvement. Mr. Warmke works for a telecommunications association.

        When they return to Ohio several times a year to help with the construction, the Warmkes live in the house even though it is three years from completion.

        “People ask, "How can you live like this?'” Mrs. Warmke said. “I don't mind living in the dirt, but I'll be glad when I don't have to.”

        The couple's comfort increases as construction progresses.

        “This is luxury now,” Mrs. Warmke said. “Before, we were living in a shed. The tools were in one half, and we slept in the other.”

        Luxury is not the goal of the house. Mr. Reynolds had the idea during a housing shortage in the 1970s.

        “His first was a house built out of beer cans,” Woolsey said. Mr. Reynolds discovered later that tires were a more effective way of storing heat generated by sunlight.

        This heat, along with a wood stove, will keep the house warm during the winter. The house is built into a bank and on a concrete slab, which helps keep it cool during the summer.

        “The house is really a machine,” Mrs. Warmke said.

        Rainwater off the roof is stored in a 5,000-gallon cistern for cooking and washing. Some is used for irrigating two indoor flower beds.

        Zoning restrictions don't apply to the remote area in which the house is built, so a composting toilet that turns waste into garden fertilizer replaces a septic system.

        Low-impact, though, doesn't mean low-cost. The Warmkes estimate the cost of the house so far at $85,000, excluding their own labor.

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