No not those tragic coloured jeans we got to experience in the early 90s. I had a purple pair! Lord please don’t let these come back into fashion..
No I mean putting jeans to a green use. Another Limited Rebellion has a story about how an organisation called Access Cotton is collecting those old jeans that simply can’t be fixed any more and turning them into insulation for homes in needy communities.
In 2006 they collected over 14 thousand pairs of jeans which is enough to insulate about 28 homes. They have been working with Habitat for Humanity and have been focussing on the rebuilding project in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina.
This is such a fantastic idea. Not only is it a brilliant use of a waste product. Especially since fabric is one of the least recycled materials in our society and also one of the most energy intensive to produce. But also because insulation is such a sound investment.
While I’m on the topic of insulation. A huge well done to the Greens and Labour in NZ for the announcement of the new state housing retrofitting scheme.
A whopping $53.4 million will be spent over the next 5 years renovating the public housing stock to make the houses drier, warmer and more energy efficient. As well as insulating 21,000 homes they will also spend money on draft-proofing windows and doors, wraps for hot water cylinders, efficient shower heads, lagging of pipes and, if appropriate, new energy efficient home heating.
This is absolutely brilliant news for public housing tenants. Not only will it improve their health and well being but it will also make a hugely positive effect on their utility bills. The Greens have estimated that the country will recover this investment four-fold over the next twenty years in energy and health savings.
Chur.
3 Comments
It’s an excellent announcement - something that needed doing years and years ago - I know the condition of those state houses in winter, and it aint pretty.
To put it into context, $53 million is roughly one 90th of the price of a new tunnel under Auckland. At the same price you could do around 700,000 private homes.
And I wonder what nth of the ‘defence’ budget that would be?
Purple, eh? Impressive. I think purple beats my maroony-redish-kak coloured jeans. I think I’d win for style though - at fourteen I thought it was hip to traipse around in baggy oversized man-pants (true, I’m afraid). I must track them down… I’m sure they could insulate a small family on their own…