Brad Kittel, who has developed an entire philosophy around the concept of “sustainability through salvage,” builds “Tiny Texas Houses” that are “99% pure salvage.” Some as small as 125 square feet, the houses come wired for electricity and outfitted for plumbing, and include a shower and toilet and a loft for sleeping. Kittel, who trains people to do "salvage mining," says "we have the power to create solutions to our global problems by the simplest of choices we make each day."

Brad Kittel set out 30 years ago from Florida "on an adventure to write the great American novel." After a stop in Las Vegas, “eating out of dumpsters and finding things to sell in flea markets” to buy parts to fix his converted 66-passenger school bus, he ended up in Austin, Texas, where he started buying up and restoring condemned boarded-up houses. In 1997 he started Discovery Architectural Antiques in Gonzales, Texas, which has over 130,000 square feet of inventory, and, utilizing that inventory, started building his “tiny houses” -- which are made with “100% American grown and mined materials…with zero carbon footprint.” Kittel hopes his houses "will last for at least another century," and he believes "that there are enough building materials sitting around on the ground to build much of the next generation of housing."

Host and Producer of Rag Radio: Thorne Dreyer; Engineer and Co-Producer: Tracey Schulz. Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog (theragblog.blogspot.com) and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Underwriting announcements and recorded music have been removed from this podcast. Running time: 50:05.

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