Take a look at what’s inside your walls to make sure you have the right insulation to keep your home properly heated and in tip-top energy-saving condition.
Old jeans can keep you warm this winter.
Staying warm and cozy at home during the winter doesn’t start with cranking up the heat. Instead, take a look at what’s inside your walls to make sure you have the right insulation to keep your home properly heated and in tip-top energy-saving condition.
Drafty old homes require constant heat and jack up heating bills because of inadequate insulation, but an upgrade can make a huge difference. One solution is to use a more earth-friendly option such as recycled denim. UltraTouch by Bonded Logic Inc. is one brand of denim insulation, containing 85% post-industrial recycled natural fibers. The denim used in UltraTouch insulation is sourced from scraps from the manufacture of blue denim jeans and leaves nothing wasted.
UltraTouch’s denim insulation can be used for interior and exterior walls as well as ceilings. It is effectively used for sound absorption, meets the highest standards for fire and smoke ratings and also resists microbial growth. It does not contain any harmful chemicals, irritants or formaldehyde, and therefore has no VOC or off-gassing concerns. It also doesn’t itch like traditional insulation does, nor does it require any dust masks when installing.
Bonded Logic Inc. boasts a zero-waste manufacturing process — it shreds any edge trim that does not pass quality control and returns it to the raw material supply, keeping 200 tons away from landfills each month. UltraTouch is LEED certified in optimizing energy performance; air quality performance; low-emission materials; and using recycled content, local materials and rapidly renewable cotton. The product also qualifies homeowners to earn eight different tax credits for energy efficiency.
Bruce Ray
January 2nd, 2010
There are several errors in this post that need correction –
1. “One solution is to use a more earth-friendly option such as recycled denim.” The FTC considers such general claims as “earth-friendly” to be essentially misleading per se. That’s because, the more general the claim, the more difficult it is to substantiate that claim. When the claims are so general like this one, they are virtually incapable of substantiation and hence untrue.
2. “UltraTouch by Bonded Logic Inc. is one brand of denim insulation, containing 85% post-industrial recycled natural fibers.” Because cotton is combustible and too risky to be used in home insulation, Bonded Logic is 15% by weight added fire retardant chemicals. Were you to insulate a new home with fire-treated denim insulation, you would bring hundreds of pounds of fire retardant chemical into the structure. Also, these are not natural fibers. Under FDA guidelines, “natural” means un- or minimally processed. In contrast denim is highly processed, not only with chemicals dyes but also 15% by weight added fire retardant chemicals.
3. “. . . meets the highest standards for fire and smoke ratings and also resists microbial growth.” Again, this is only because the product is 15% by weight fire retardant chemicals. It is true that fire retardant chemicals my also repel pests as the same boron-based chemicals are also used in products like “Roach-Ridd.”
4. “It does not contain any harmful chemicals, irritants or formaldehyde, and therefore has no VOC or off-gassing concerns.” The Bonded Logic website does not detail any product emissions testing, so the off-gassing claim is not yet substantiated. The no “harmful chemicals, irritants” claim overlooks that the boron-based fire retardants (including boric acid and borates) used as fire the retardant chemical is on OSHA’s list of “Toxic and Hazardous Substances.”
5. “It also doesn’t itch like traditional insulation does, nor does it require any dust masks when installing.” This is just untrue; the Bonded Logic MSDS on their website recommends that installers use the same type of respirator/mask that fiber glass manufacturers recommend.
6. “UltraTouch is LEED certified . . .” This is untrue. No products are LEED-certified; rather, only buildings can be LEED-certified.
The most important issue for denim insulation is which impacts are attributable to just the insulation manufacturing. Since this product is made from post-industrial denim scraps (mostly sourced from Mexico) the environmental and social impacts attributable to the product should include those from the cotton production, denim production, and the insulation manufacturing.
Since Mexican agriculture is hardly well-regulated from either an environmental and social perspective, claims that this product is “sustainable” are quite suspect. For a bio-based product to be truly sustainable, the plants (here cotton) would need independent third-party certification that they were planted, cultivated and harvested according to well-accepted principles of sustainable agriculture. For example, what water pollution is generated from growing the cotton? How much water is used? Are chemical herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers used? What are the conditions of the agricultural workers? And what chemical dyes used and water pollution generated? No sustainability claims should be made for this product until all these questions are addressed.
Full disclosure: I am with Johns Manville, the company that in 2002 introduced the first full line of Formaldehyde-freeTM fiber glass home insulation. Our white insulation is naturally fire retardant (no added fire retardant chemicals or processing required) and certified as not emitting formaldehyde and containing an average of 20% post-consumer recycled content (recycled beverage bottles). Our product is made in modern plants that are highly regulated from an environmental perspective. And our workers are full-time employees who enjoy fair wages and full benefits. Finally, although prices vary by region, our product is much less expensive than denim insulation and available at all Lowe’s stores nationwide.
Bruce Ray
Johns Manville
John
January 3rd, 2010
Wow, I didn’t know that old jeans can really help you survive the cold winter. I know that it can be use for sound proofing but to make your house warm.. I was surprise.
Margie Monin Dombrowski
January 4th, 2010
Bruce,
Thanks for responding to this post. Although recycled denim as insulation is not 100% natural or sustainable, it is an interesting concept for consumers and builders to explore. All of the facts mentioned here came directly from the Bonded Logic Inc. company website. 1-800-RECYCLING.com does not promote or endorse any of the products our writers write about; we merely report on them to give consumers the options they deserve.
chris
January 17th, 2010
In response to the Johns Manville post. While some of your statements may be true what isn’t mentioned is that the cotton industry is sponsoring large denim recycle drives to supply the manufacturing of the insulation. This is actually positive as it removes a huge amount of denim from the trash that would be consigned to sitting in a landfill somewhere. There is no perfect solution to manufacturing insulation and meeting 100% green (whatever that really is) goals. If Johns Manville wants to put their money where the mouth is maybe they should seriously consider donating their insulation to Habitat for Humanity (pardon if you already have) which can always uses some good house insulation.
Repurposed Denim to ’Shrooms: Toasty Eco-Insulation Alternatives | 1-800-Recycling
June 15th, 2010
[...] the company also converts the cotton fiber waste remaining from the manufacture of new jeans. The resulting product comes in the form of plush blankets that are free from traditional irritants, formaldehyde, [...]
jen
September 8th, 2010
I fully support upcycling manufactured waste and do not want toxic chemicals in my building products. We chose BondedLogic’s UltraTouch because of this and its physical structure seemed superior to the JohnsMansville product. It filled the wall cavity more fully and did not slump or flatten. The structure of the batts were more 3-dimensional, like a matrix, as opposed to the fiberglass of JohnsMansville, which seemed like flat layer upon layer. We also appreciated that the UltraTouch had better sound insulation.
However, we did not like the amount of dust it created. Blue dust everywhere, sticking to everything and remaining in the house for weeks on end. I’ve developed an itchy rash since installing it. I am very curious if any independent sources have tested the BondedLogic cotton insulation product for any toxic pesticide residue or toxic chemicals from the denim manufacturing process. I trust that BondedLogic isn’t adding toxic chemicals as they claim, but I have read that cotton is a pesticide-intensive crop.
Insulation is One of the Best Ways to Improve Energy Efficiency | 1-800-Recycling
September 17th, 2010
[...] insulation products on the market. One of the products that is gaining in popularity is blue jean insulation. This is insulation that is primarily made from post-consumer recycled natural fibers, including [...]