‘I’m proud of it’: Senior creates town from recycled materials

An Edmonton senior has built an entire town out of recycled materials. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti has his story.

An 83-year-old retirement home resident took a recycling lesson to heart and used it as artistic inspiration to build a town.

The little town of Recycle started out as a single cardboard box Russ Drury, a resident at St. Andrew’s Centre, saw something in.

“The centre was getting interested in the recycling program, and we want it more and more, because there was so much waste … and then one thing just led to another,” Drury said.

That box became a house and Drury soon added a barn and an outhouse before moving on to a general store, church and school.

The town of Recycle is displayed in the retirement home, built 90-per-cent out of recycled materials like cardboard and Bristol board.

“I’m proud of it,” Drury said.

The building and reusing aspect of the project wasn’t entirely new to Drury.

“Even before I retired I had my own workshop, I built a lot of stuff, I refinished a lot of furniture, there were a lot of toys and stuff that I built,” he said.

“Most of the stuff I built was out of wood with stuff that was going to be thrown away, and I gathered it up.”

The project inspires people to be creative and environmentally aware, according to other residents.

Connie Drouim, another resident and a former teacher, said she saw “immense” educational value in the project.

“It promotes and encourages awareness, and I think a lot of people could pick up on the project and have ideas of their own too … it’s not an expensive project to build, most everyone would be able to do something similar if they set their mind and heart to it,” said Drouim.

“I hope that Russ will continue to come up with interesting projects.”

Recycles might keep growing, with Drury saying others have suggested the town could use a hotel and maybe a winter treatment come Christmas time.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti