I’m always on the lookout for sustainable natural building materials. Recycled glass insulation is not only made in part with recycled glass, it’s also effective at reducing energy costs and improving the acoustics in homes and businesses. EcoBatt insulation caught my eye because it appears to be the largest brand of recycled, non-toxic glass insulation in the US. A few other brands are listed below, some of which are available in Europe.
EcoBatt insulation: “EcoBatt Insulation combines sand, one of the world’s most abundant and renewable resources, post-consumer recycled bottle glass and ECOSE Technology to create the next generation of sustainable insulation…naturally from Knauf.
Features & Benefits:
• Made primarily from sand, one of the world’s most abundant and renewable resources
• Lower embodied energy than our traditional batts
• Rapidly renewable binder eliminates petroleum-based chemicals
• Contains no phenol, formaldehyde, acrylics or artificial colors
• High Recycled Content — contains a minimum of 61.9% post-consumer recycled content
• Thermally Efficient — excellent insulating value
• Acoustical Performance”
Hi Owen, depending on what Kind of Sand, we’re running actually out of it! Desert Sand is useless for most purposes, therefore beaches are plundered. Meanwhile we can talk about Peak Beach…
Best wishes
Agreed. In some areas greedy companies are plundering rivers, streams, wildlife areas, etc. for sand to make concrete. This is a huge problem in some places. Hopefully these insulation companies are using sand in a responsible way. In Colorado where I used to live there are big pockets of sand that have washed down from the Rocky Mountains. Companies would quarry the sand and create ponds for wildlife.
This made me realize something else. How do you harvest materials sustainably for multi-million population cities where people live in large houses and work in skyscrapers? It may be impossible. So natural builders and authors of natural building books need to take into consideration the need to procure natural building materials sustainably.