Oregon State University
IN-2: Innovation 2

OSU Polymer Processing and Characterization Laboratory School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering Recycled Plastics for Green Building Insulation Britany Swann, Samantha Anderlie, Michaela Mockler-Martens, Dr. Travis Walker, and Dr. Skip Rochefort Plastic waste is a worldwide problem, and some plastic articles such as expanded polystyrene (commonly called Styrofoam) are essentially not recycled anywhere. Some of the most common building insulation materials are made of expanded polystyrene that are all manufactured from virgin material. Several years ago the CBEE Polymer Laboratory (Dr. Rochefort) received a grant from Oregon BEST to build equipment to evaluate the thermal properties (R-value) of insulation materials. This led to the evaluation of using recycled plastics of all types as building insulation for “green building applications” in the US and as much needed inexpensive building insulation in Third World countries. We will continue this work utilizing plastics from the OSU waste stream, including Styrofoam which is difficult and expensive to have removed and is not recycled. We have measured the R-Values (insulating quality) of both mixed plastic wastes and “broken-up and compressed Styrofoam” packaged into “12 inch square pillows” which could easily be added to as insulation on the walls of houses. The R-values of approximately 4.4 – 4.6 per inch are very competitive with the current Dow Pink Styrofoam commercial product used in housing which was measured at 4.8 – 5.0 per inch. We are currently moving to a “small house model” test on the OSU Campus using the “recycled plastic pillows” as insulation.