Sheep's wool insulation, now available in the US, is an alternative to fibreglass. Commonly used in the Europe, Australia and and New Zealand, sheep's wool is recyclable, safe to install, and makes sense— after all, sheep are built to withstand hot, cold, damp and dry seasons.
Wool is also not irritating to the respiratory system or the skin like fiberglass, because of the larger size of the individual fibres. It can absorb and break down indoor air pollutants such as formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. However, it's not perfect. The insulation is treated with Borax, which does have a much lower toxicity than something like fibreglass insulation, but it does have relatively high toxicity levels. It's also a bit more expensive than regular insulation.
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Comments (3)
How many sheep does it take to create enough wool for one average house? I'd like to see their food and land use and waste production taken into account for the "greenness" of this product.
Ditto mel_v's comment.
Also wool sheep are
a) bred to produce this way and their treatment is typically not humane
b) carted off to the meat industry when they're not producing any longer (add in transport footprint there as well)
My understanding is that the wool that is used in insulation is the belly wool which not used for cloth making.
We have wool insulation in our ceiling we chose it over cellulose fibre aka recycled paper(for fire reasons and the fact that its not 'stable'), fibreglass (for the glass fibre reasons - we were told the fibres had the potential to filter down through the ceiling), or aluminium (because of the high energy costs to produce the stuff).