Resourceful Angus driving on with project

Having built a house from waste, a vehicle is next on the list

A man who built his Dundee home out of fast food wrappers and plastic bottles is now planning to build a motor vehicle from waste.

Former waste worker Angus Carnie created his own house for just £15,000 using waste.

The 55-year-old collapsed one day and woke to find doctors telling him that he had a brain seizure and that it was likely from a tumour, which could kill him in a matter of weeks.

Luckily for him the tumour turned out to be benign.

But Angus, who had worked in waste disposal for 20 years, was stripped of his driver’s licence until the tumour had been fully removed.

It was at that point that the thrifty Scotsman realised he had to learn to live on a budget.

In October, Angus moved from his property in Lymm, Cheshire, to a twobedroom detached house near Dundee that had been built from McDonald’s wrappers and used bedsheets.

He said: “I looked at all of my costs and housing was the easily the biggest. I started to wonder how I could use my waste knowledge and put it to good use.

“People said I’d never manage it and people thought I was bonkers, but I said: ‘I’ll manage – I’m Scottish’.”

The house features faux wooden logs made from compressed plastic and breeze blocks made from hospital bedding.

The property is also solar and windpowered, while his water supply is based on collected and filtered rain.

The rain feeds into a 90-litre tub on his roof, which is then filtered as it goes through to his taps.

His home, which took seven months to build, is also exempt from council tax due to its eco-friendliness.

He said: “The house is totally sustainable. I create my own electricity. When I’m watching TV at night I use little pedals to generate electricity.

“I then bank it all into four batteries and that keeps me going.”

Angus, originally from Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, designs bins for waste companies after returning to work following his health scare.

He said: “Single use plastic waste is a massive problem, not just in the UK but all over the place. This is a good way of dealing with it and a good way of doing affordable housing.

“We need to think more about how youngsters get on the property chain – in Cheshire house prices are huge.

“It’s so expensive to get on the property ladder, but this detached house cost £15,000 – you couldn’t buy a shed in Lymm for that much.”

Now he has started planning his next project – a motor vehicle made from waste.

He said: “Having my licence taken from me got me thinking about how you can get about, because public transport is just so rubbish.

“I am now designing a vehicle which can be made out of waste and then be approved for road use.”

Angus’s home is made entirely from waste materials.

Picture: SWNS. Angus pictured in the home he built.