The Loveland Habitat for Humanity ReStore is seeing blue – blue get turned into green that is. In partnership with the Workwear Store at the Outlets of Loveland and Cotton USA, the store is setting aside jeans and other denim clothing items that cannot be resold; these jeans will then be recycled into home insulation! The ReStore has been collecting jeans for the past few months and estimates it will have more than 1,000 pairs, enough to insulate 2 homes.
Additionally, Loveland’s Constant Contact and The Ranch employees are collecting jeans for the effort. All the jeans will be counted during a Blue Into Green event at the ReStore on September 4th. The Workwear Store will be offering an opportunity to win a free pair of jeans for those dropping off their old jeans that day at the ReStore. Between September 4 and 11, jeans can be dropped off also at the Workwear Store for a chance to win.
The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive is a call-to-action to donate denim and give it “new life” by converting it to UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation. The insulation is then provided to communities in need to assist with building efforts. UltraTouch™ is composed of 85% recycled cotton fibers and is an environmentally safe, non-itch insulation without carcinogenic warnings, formaldehyde or chemical irritants. It provides exceptional thermal performance and acoustically provides 30% better sound absorption than traditional fiberglass insulation. In addition, it is one of the only insulating products that contain an active mold/mildew inhibitor.
The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive was first created in 2006 as part of Cotton Incorporated’s groundbreaking collegiate mobile marketing initiative COTTON’S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR®. The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive served as a grassroots student-run campaign to educate college coeds about the natural, renewable and recyclable attributes of denim.
In its first year, the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive doubled initial collection estimates — a total of 14,566 pieces of denim were collected nationwide. College students across the U.S. rallied their campuses and surrounding communities for donations. To begin the manufacturing process from denim to insulation, the first step was to send all of the denim to Allan Company, a leader in the recycling industry since 1963. From there, it was compressed into 1,000+ lb. bales and transported to JBM Fibers, a leading manufacturer of reprocessed fibers. Once the denim was processed and returned to its original cotton fiber state, it was ready for conversion by Bonded Logic Inc., the manufacturer of UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation.
For more information about this program, please contact Karen at Loveland Habitat for Humanity, 970-669-9769.
