BOISE, ID – Waste from Idaho’s agriculture industry does not need to go to the trash heap. In fact, it can help build more sustainable homes.

EarthCraft Construction in the Treasure Valley builds homes from straw bales, collected from the leftovers of wheat cultivation throughout the state.

Jon Clark, CEO of the company, said there is no shortage of material, noting wheat is cultivated in 48 of Idaho’s 50 counties.

“There’s bales and bales of straw that go to waste every year and the farmers either till it under, use it as compostable material or some people will buy it, maybe for some stables, for bedding, stuff like that,” Clark explained. “There’s not a real big use for it, but you have to do it in order to make wheat.”

Clark acknowledged building homes from straw bales is not a new concept. It actually has a history stretching back 200 years. Using agricultural waste from nearby farms also cuts down on the need to ship in materials.

He also noted straw bales capture carbon and using them is a carbon-negative strategy. Clark added structures built with straw bale have advantages over those built with traditional materials.

“For this environment that we’re in here, which is the Treasure Valley, a high desert, it is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal in all the aspects that you would want it to,” Clark emphasized. “Fire resiliency, insulate capacity, thermal mass, cleanliness.”

Clark believes many people want to conserve resources, which he argued starts with saving the waste we already create.

“They understand that and they like to support that,” Clark observed. “But I think that they don’t really know how unsustainable we have become as a society, as a people, as a country.”