Cob: Cob insulation idea

[Tobin C. Newburgh]

I'm new to this list, so I apologize if this has already been brought up on 
the list, but Marlin's comment about "utilizing city waste streams" 
reminded me of the project that Richard Messer is working on.  Maybe 
Richard is on this list, or some of you know him, but he build a home in 
Fraser, Colorado entirely out of 4' cube paperboard bales from the local 
recycling yard!  The house is plastered and from pictures I've seen it 
looks beautiful.

Paperbales could be a good alternative insulation source for a cob hybrid 
type system, however, they too are a better thermal mass than insulator, 
because they are compressed at I believe 10,000 pounds.  Paperboard is very 
difficult to recycle and is usually sent overseas to countries with less 
strict environmental standards for factory outputs or it is sent to the 
land fill.  I think Richard got all of the bales for his house for free and 
paid only the cost of the truck rental to move them!

Their house was covered in the July/Aug. 2002 edition of Natural Home 
magazine.  He can be contacted at rmesser at rkymtnhi.com

namaste

toby