California firm produces 3D-printed tiny homes using waste plastic
SAN JOSE -- California has plenty of problems including a lack of housing and an excess of plastic waste material.
Now a Southern California company has combined those two challenges into an innovative way to create more homes that was on display in San Jose Sunday.
Each time the "TinyFest" small home expo returns to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds it seems to take on more relevance. Event CEO Renee Seevers said the show got rolling by introducing people to what micro dwellings have to offer.
"One of the big goals that TinyFest had was to normalize and expose people to these because they were just such an unknown -- 'What is that little thing I see on TV?'" Seevers recalled. "Now we're really focusing on teaching them how accessible they can be financially and how you can place them in more places now."
As accessory dwelling units (ADU) have grown in popularity, there have been lots of innovations but one of the most revolutionary is what's coming from a company called Azure Printed Homes.
"This is a 180 sq. ft. home that we were able to print in 24 hours," said Azure's sales manager Jeremy Peyton.
At its Southern California factory, a giant 3D printer arm suspended over a rotating carousel extrudes a constant bead of molten plastic to create a solid shell for the structure. With no seams, it's leak-proof and insect-proof and, to make it bigger, you simply connect more sections together.
"The material we're using is recycled plastic," Peyton said. "Think food containers, plastic water bottles mixed with a polymer resin with fiberglass to give it that structural integrity."
The company estimates a studio apartment on display was created using the equivalent of 150,000 recycled plastic bottles. Inside it contains a living space including a small kitchen area and a bathroom with full-size commode and shower. By eliminating the high cost of lumber and on-site construction, the price for the single unit is only $35,000.
At the show, Susan Dold was looking for ideas for an ADU she wants to build on her Lake County property.
"I was going to buy one of those steel cargo containers and build my own," she said. "I priced out all the materials and labor and these prices are much less than what I could build it for. So, I think I'm going to buy one."
It's a compelling proposition: Construction costs decreased while also addressing the shortage of housing and a glut of plastic waste.
"We're truly in a homeless crisis right now and we also have this incredible source of plastic," Peyton said. "Unfortunately, there's 54 million tons of plastic that's wasted each year in the U.S. and we're only recycling four percent of it."
Customers can design a ADU at the company's online order site and the completed structure will be delivered anywhere in the country within four weeks time.
If necessity is the mother of invention, the need to construct more housing and produce less waste may be giving birth to a whole new world of innovation.
"We're growing quickly. The scalability is there," Peyton said. "We're keeping up with demand. I believe it is the future."