Denim donations will be used to help rebuild La. school
CU students donated their old pairs of blue jeans to be shredded and turned into cotton fiber insulation for a school being rebuilt in the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast on Monday.
Cotton Inc. – a company that represents the cotton industry – came to campus as part of their national “Dirty Laundry Tour,” which is working to collect enough jeans to help rebuild a primary school in Baton Rouge, La. The school was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina last year.
Over 500 pairs of blue jeans were collected yesterday at CU. Cotton Inc. had collected over 1,600 pairs between the tour’s first two visits to the University of Maryland and Michigan State University.
“A lot of students who were displaced are down in Baton Rouge,” said Stephanie Downes, director of strategic alliances for Cotton Inc. “They don’t have a school to go to down there so we’re going to help rebuild with all the denim that’s collected on the tour.”
The jeans will be shredded and turned into an insulation called Ultra Touch made by Bonded Logic, a company that manufactures natural fiber insulations, which are safe for the environment. The insulation is much safer to handle than traditional fiberglass insulation and is very effective in minimizing heat loss and outside noise.
“A lot of people don’t know that denim is made of cotton, and cotton, because it’s a natural fiber, it’s renewable. It’s sustainable. It’s recyclable,” Downes said.
The next stop on Cotton Inc.’s tour is Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The tour will end on Nov. 6 at North Carolina State University.
