THERE ARE LOTS OF DISPOSABLE THINGS YOU USE IN YOUR HOME THAT CAN BE RECYCLED TO CREATE NEW BUILDING PRODUCTS. NEWSPAPERS... FOR INSTANCE... CAN BE INCORPORATED IN CELLULOSE INSULATION. BUT WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU THAT STYROFOAM CAN BE USED TO BUILD VERY STRONG WALLS FOR YOUR NEW HOUSE?

Michael Holigan: The world's forests continue to be cut down faster than they're replaced. Along with the impact on the environment, that also means the supply of good, quality wood for building homes is becoming more scarce all the time. As a result, new alternative building materials and methods seem to be popping up almost everyday. One that might really surprise you combines recycled Styrofoam with concrete. It's called Rastra, and it can be cut and fashioned into almost any shape imaginable with very simple tools. Artist and sculptor Cam Schoepp decided to use Rastra to build a large addition to his 1926 bungalow.

Cam Schoepp (Sculptor): A lot of what attracted me was the quality. The thickness of the walls, the insulative qualities.

M.H.: The insulating quality Cam is talking about is an R-Value of 35 or more in the typical 10 inch thick Rastra wall. R-Value is simply a measure of resistance to heat transfer, and the higher the number the better. And our value of 35 is pretty high compared to an R-Value of 13 for the typical wall framed with 2x4 lumber. Because Rastra is made of recycled Styrofoam cups and packaging, you might think it would burn or melt easily in a fire. But Braun Intertech, an industrial testing lab in Portland, Oregon, recently found it to be extremely fireproof. Flames on one side of the wall brought the temperature up to more than 2,200 degrees for five hours without setting it on fire or causing a release of any gases. Meanwhile, the other side of the wall showed no transfer of heat at all. Once the Rastra blocks are in place, the honeycomb of holes inside are filled with concrete and reinforced with steel rebar.

C.S.: The material itself is not wildly expensive. It's pricey, but one has to consider that it takes care of the insulation and the siding. It takes care of a lot of the tasks that begin to add up.

M.H.: I'm Michael Holigan, About The House.