Jaue2025-030 Creating Clothing Fiber Insulation Material and Calculating CO2 Emissions

Abstract

Large amounts of clothing are incinerated due to limited reuse and recycling methods, so we focused on insulation material as a new way to recycle clothing waste. In this study, insulation materials using clothing waste were created. After that, their performance and CO₂ emissions were evaluated. Cotton and mixture fibers were selected as the clothing fibers for the test specimens. All of the test specimens were created by stuffing clothing fibers and other materials into a formwork consisting of extruded polystyrene foam and moisture barrier paper. As a result of measurement by heat flow meter apparatus, the thermal conductivities of insulation materials using only clothing fiber were found to be slightly poorer than those of glass wool and cellulose fiber. Based on this result, insulation materials blended with mixture fibers and existing insulation materials were also created. Existing insulation materials were cut into 1cm squares, blended with mixture fibers, and filled into the formwork. Insulation materials using blends of mixture fibers and existing insulation materials were confirmed to have equal or better thermal insulation performance than glass wool and cellulose fiber. Manufacturing CO₂ emissions were calculated by using the results of hearings and previous studies, resulting in an average of 11% less for mixture fibers compared to glass wool. However, adding the heating and cooling energy for a detached house as operational CO₂ emissions to the manufacturing CO₂ emissions, it was found that mixture fibers catch up to glass wool after about 15 years. In addition, the insulation material with the lowest CO₂ emissions during manufacturing and 30 years of operating was a blend of mixture fibers and extruded polystyrene foam.