If I sound a little ill in this video.. it's cause I was. Sorry about that. Fortunately it was just allergies and not the "c" word.

The average American throws away 81 pounds of clothing every year and the rise of fast fashion is causing that number to increase. Americans now buy 400% more clothes than they used to in the 1980s. Many people donate their clothes without realizing that most of them end up in landfills. Secondhand clothing that is exported to developing countries is killing local industries so many have now stopped accepting used garments. It is estimated that every year, 24 billion pounds of clothing waste including jeans end up in landfills. Denim jeans are usually made of 100% cotton which can be broken down into fibers unlike other clothing which are made of blended materials. This makes it ideal for organic home insulation. Old, donated jeans are sent to the “Blue Jeans Go Green” and Phoenix Fibers denim recycling programs. The jeans are cut down into small pieces, and zippers, buttons and rivets are removed from the mix. The remaining material is shredded into cotton fibers and then bundled into 1000 pound bales.

These bales are then shipped to the Bonded Logic facility where a variety of products are made. Ultra Touch wall insulation for homes is made by coating the fibers with a nontoxic borate solution and then spinning them at a high speed to create loosefiber forms that resemble cotton candy. This insulation can be difficult to cut to the proper width so the company now makes them with perforated seams similar to paper towels. I realized that there is a material in our homes that is very similar to denim insulation. Dryer lint! It's a much smaller scale but essentially the same principle. So, denim insulation works on the same principle as fiberglass, mineral wood and rock wool. The material itself doesn’t provide much thermal resistance but it's the air trapped in pockets between the fibers which you can see at a microscopic scale, that acts as an insulator.

Bonded Logic claims that their denim insulation has a lot of advantages over its biggest competitor, fiberglass insulation. The first is that it’s an ecofriendly alternative. It’s made of 85% recycled content that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. The company estimates that it saves about 200 tons of waste denim per month. It also consumes less energy than fiberglass manufacturing because you are starting with an existing product. It’s also a zerowaste production because any scraps from the manufacturing process can be shredded and returned to the raw material supply. Another advantage is its superior sound absorption qualities, 30% higher than fiberglass. It can block outdoor noise from traffic and airplanes and even reduce indoor sound transmission. The nontoxic borate solution that coats the denim fibers makes it mold, mildew and fungi resistant and gives it a Class A fire rating. Another big advantage is that it doesn’t irritate the skin or respiratory tract. Fiberglass insulation is made of fine shards of glass that can be embedded in your skin, if you handle it without gloves and your windpipe if you don’t wear a mask. Denim insulation, on the other hand, can be handled without gloves. It doesn’t contain any VOCs or formaldehyde which can offgas.

Now, the disadvantages of denim insulation. It’s approximately twice the cost of fiberglass insulation. It’s priced in the same bracket as spray foam insulation but doesn’t offer the same thermal resistance and air tightness. Another common complaint about denim insulation is that it’s compressed and tough to fluff up. As we discussed earlier, the air trapped between the fibers acts as an insulator, so the more you are able to fluff it up, the greater the thickness, and the higher the R value. But if these denim batts are compressed, they won’t provide the R value that they claim. So, in conclusion, an excellent idea but it isn’t ideal. If the manufacturers can bring the price down significantly, it can be a viable alternative to fiberglass insulation. Maybe it would be better used for its acoustical properties rather than its thermal performance. It could be a more ecofriendly alternative to polyester. If it were to be used as insulation, it could be a better alternative to styrofoam.

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