Nov 14, 2013 09:38 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Dr. Jeff Wilson, an environmental professor at the Huston-Tillotson University (HTU) in Austin, Texas, is going the distance to teach his students and the community about the importance of sustainability and the concept of 'less is more.'

The Harvard-educated professor will spend one year living in a 33-square-foot dumpster, starting Thanksgiving Day with only a sports bag full of possessions.

Wilson not only plans to include all the comforts of a home, energy efficient methods will also be incorporated in the steel waste bin with the goal of lessening environmental impact and to see if dumpsters can be used as homes in the future.

This project will not be handled by him alone. His students will help renovate the dwelling to make 'living on a smaller scale' practically possible.

 "The idea here is to ultimately show one can have a pretty good life in a dumpster," Wilson told Fast Company.

The six-foot-nine-inch bin with eight inches of head room will initially include only a sleeping bag, arranged in a hammock-like set-up.

Later on, the first phase of the project will feature addition of various comforts of a modern home - a bed, lights, shower, toilet, air conditioning, WiFi and even an Xbox console, in his tiny shelter. Then, environmentally-friendly initiatives such as solar panels and energy producing toilets will be installed.

'In the end I want that space capsule to be designed to a standard that even my mother would give it a go for a night.,' Dr Wilson told MailOnline.

When the professor needs a break, students can opt to stay in the eight cubic yard dumpster.

"Crazy. But I think it's pretty intriguing," Maurice Fleming, an English major at the school told KSDK. "It's pretty cool. I want to live in it too."

"Oh yes, it's on my bucket list .I want to live in a dumpster," Jelly Erazo, a political science major told Examiner.

Once the dumpster project is complete, Wilson will be using the customized trash bin as a 'holiday home or bachelor pad - off campus - perpetually,' Daily Mail UK reports.

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