From Cotton to Jeans to Home Insulation – An Amazing Recycling Program

One of the companies that I met at BlogHer was Cotton and their booth in the expo really caught my eye. The tables had huge chunks of home insulation on it! HOME INSULATION?? HUH? Why in the WORLD would the Cotton brand have insulation sitting on their tables at the expo? It definitely peaked my interest…..so I waited to find out why in the world the insulation was sitting there.

Cotton has a “From Blue to Green” campaign that is really cool. Very simply put they collect old pairs of jeans that no one wants, and recycles them into home insulation! It was amazing. The chunks of insulation almost looked like completely shredded denim – it was very unique. I found this video on National Geographic that breaks the process down a little. It’s definitely worth watching.

Although you pay the postage to mail in your jeans, you can actually send any type of denim and also download a shipping label on the Blue to Green website.

So what exactly do they do with this recycled denim insulation? Cotton has been donating it to Habitat for Humanity since 2006, when the program started. Starting last year they have also opened up grants for builders and contractors to be able to use this special insulation or green buildings as well.

Did YOU know all this? It was really unique and interesting to learn about. And the insulation was scratchy because there is no fiberglass! Much nicer to work with!