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Jeans for Insulation Project a Success!

October 31, 2009

The Intro to HSR Class concluded their Denim Drive: Changing the World One Pair of Jeans at a Time by loading a school bus with over 300 pairs of donated jeans and additional bags filled with scraps of denim leftover from quilting projects.

Donations came from not only Plainview but from surrounding towns as well and as far west as O’Neill, Atkinson, and Ewing. Students then unloaded the donated denim at Vanity in Norfolk at the Sunset Plaza Mall to add to their already 200 pairs of donated jeans. With the totals combined there will be enough denim to insulate one home. 500 pairs of jeans will recycle into approximately enough insulation for one home (based on a formula with the average house being approximately 2,300 square feet and the average wall 8X 12’).
The process of taking denim jeans and recycling it into insulation requires a few steps. The first step in turning an old pair of jeans or any denim garment into natural cotton fiber insulation is to remove zippers, buttons, hardware, and embellishments. The denim is then returned to its natural, original fiber state, cotton, preparing it for manufacturing. The reprocessed fiber is treated with a borate solution for fire retardency and mold/mildew resistance. Borate has a lower toxicity than table salt, making it safe for people and their environment. The manufacturing process for creating UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation is now underway. Sheets of insulation are cut to size and prepared for packaging to be shipped and installed for use in residential homes and commercial buildings across the country.
The first COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive in 2006 collected 14,566
denim pieces nationwide; more than double the anticipated amount. In 2007 and
2008, the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive expanded its reach
through partnerships with national retailers and organizations, including National Jean
Company, Ernest Sewn, Gap, G by Guess, and Guess by Marciano, as well as
Warner Bros. Pictures. To date, the natural cotton fiber insulation produced has been
used in building new homes for more than 180 families in the Gulf Coast region.
Behak Beltz, Katie Goetzinger, Morgan Johnston, Shelby Kocian, Morgan Brozek, Shelby Forbes, and Celine Eggerling were in charge of organizing this project and stated, “We are very excited that we went above our goal of collecting 200 items. With us going over 300 items we were able to help Vanity in Norfolk reach their goal of 500—they were 300 items short. If there is a way to get the denim to the manufacturing company each year this would be a great annual project as many of those who donated said they would have more for next year. Thank you to everyone who participated!”