With the economy still struggling, and people looking to save and recycle, Mike Reynolds may have come up with the answer 40 years ago: completely self-sufficient homes he calls Earthships.

The homes have no connections to the electrical grid, no water line, and no sewer. All of the homes, made from mostly recycled materials like cans and tires use solar energy for heating and collected rain water for drinking and bathing.

While the homes have been successfully built in every sort of climate they are not cheap, costing about $350,000, making them still a luxury for most.

"So we have a building that will have a guaranteed utility bill, annual utility bill of less than $100, guaranteed annual total utility usage, power, water, sewage. And that speaks for, one, the economy of running the building, but more than that, the effect, the light touch that it has on the planet." Mike Reynolds, Developer, Earthship Biotecture

"We have so much of these materials -- bottles, cans and tires -- that we don't know what to do with them. They're filling the municipal landfills. We have more tires on this planet than we have trees." Mike Reynolds, Developer, Earthship Biotecture

"A television set, video machines, dishwasher, laundry - you can do anything -- just anything you can do off a regular system, you can do off a solar system. You just have to be aware of maybe appliances that would drain it too much." Mike Reynolds, Developer, Earthship Biotecture

"I think it's fundamentally changed me, but I don't think that I changed my life. We live like a normal family with more awareness of kind of the limits on things, I guess, so, like, we know how much it's raining, and therefore how much water we have, or how sunny it's been for a week, for instance. And if it hasn't been, then we adjust our life." Alix Henry, Earthship owner

1. What materials is your house or apartment made of?

2. How do you get your energy? Where does your water come from?

1. What do you think of Earthships? Would you want to live in one?

2. Name some pros and cons of an Earthship.

3. Do you think your energy consumption would change if you lived in an Earthship? Why or why not? Is that a good thing?

4. Think of your home, what small improvements could you make to improve energy use? What big improvements could you make?