A startup based in Colombia, the world’s largest arabica coffee bean exporter, is utilizing coffee husks, a byproduct from the coffee roasting process that would otherwise go to waste, to build affordable housing, a report from FastCompany explains.

The Bogotá-based company, called Woodpecker WPC, combines the husks with recycled plastic to create a new material sturdy enough to build houses, barns, and storage spaces.

Impressively, the firm, which started developing the solution roughly a decade ago, charges as little as $4,500 for a fully built house using its coffee husk-plastic hybrid material.

The company makes specialized kits that are easily assembled, and easily transportable to remote locations — though Woodpecker usually builds its own houses, some customers buy the kits and build them themselves. Construction of the simple, cheaply-made houses usually takes less than a week. 

Last November, the devastating Category 5 hurricane Iota hit the Colombian island of Providence, causing unprecedented damage in the region and destroying 1,300 homes. Woodpecker’s houses were seen as the most viable solution for restoring housing to the area with its cheap, quickly-assembled kits.

As Woodpecker’s CEO, Alejandro Franco, explained to FastCompany, they hope to keep building in the region and provide a solution for the area’s housing crisis. The company’s solution is especially suited to such rural low-income areas, where it can be difficult to transport building materials such as bricks and cement.

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