Insulation Industry Annually Consumes 2.2B Pounds of Glass
Originally published by: PR Newswire — September 5, 2018
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The North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) has announced the results of a recent survey of its members' use of pre- and post-consumer recycled materials in insulation and acoustical products in 2017. The survey includes data from both U.S. and Canadian manufacturing facilities.
According to the survey, U.S. manufacturers used more than 2.2 billion pounds of recycled glass in the production of residential, commercial, and industrial thermal and acoustical insulation – roughly equivalent to the amount of Municipal Solid Waste generated by 1 million people in the U.S. in a year.
NAIMA Canada members together used 346 million pounds of recycled glass in the production of residential, commercial, industrial, and air handling thermal and acoustical insulation.
U.S. and Canadian facilities used more than 675 million pounds of recycled blast furnace slag in the production of thermal and acoustical insulation. Since the industry's recycling program began in 1992, NAIMA members' plants have diverted an estimated 58.2 billion pounds of recycled materials from the waste stream.
"Our industry is tremendously proud of the substantial use of recycled content in the production of energy saving insulation products," said Curt Rich, President and CEO of NAIMA. "These products ultimately reduce building energy use and decrease our carbon footprint. Over the long term, the fiber glass and mineral wool insulation industry expects to continue using substantial amounts of recycled content in the production of insulation products."
While recycled content is just one indicator of a product's environmental impact, the survey results illustrate the significant impact that an industry can have through the conscientious use of materials.