Survey Says – More Than 2 Billion Lbs. of Insulation Materials Contain Recycled Content

In a statement released Dec. 10, 2015, the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) announced the results of a recent survey of its members. Where insulation isn’t specifically a surfacing product, it is used heavily in conjunction with a variety of surfacing materials and, as such, it holds relevancy. The survey was initiated to learn more about the use of pre- and post-consumer recycled materials in insulation and acoustical products in 2014. While recycled content is just one indicator of a product’s environmental impact, the survey results illustrate the significant impact an industry can have through the conscientious use of materials.

The survey, that included data from both U.S. and Canadian manufacturing facilities, indicated that U. S. manufacturers used more than 1.7 billion pounds of recycled glass in the production of commercial, residential and industrial thermal and acoustical insulation and Canadian NAIMA members used 373 million pounds of recycled glass.

According to the survey, U.S. and Canadian facilities also used more than 695 million pounds of recycled blast furnace slag to produce thermal and acoustical insulation.  Since the industry’s recycling program began in 1992, more than 49.2 billion pounds of recycled materials have been diverted from the waste stream.

You may also be interested in this article about recycled glass tiles from Tesselle.