by Abigail Ramirez
Daily Lobo
UNM dropped its pants for charity this month as part of Cotton's Dirty Laundry Tour.
ASUNM's Community Experience collected about 1,300 pairs of jeans and denim clothing for the program, said Doug Rocks-Macqueen, assistant director of the organization.
The tour came to UNM on Monday to pick up the denim, which has been collected around campus over the last two weeks.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The denim will be sent to Bonded Logic, an insulation manufacturer, which will convert jeans into insulation. The insulation will be used to rebuild a school in Baton Rouge, La., that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
When denim is shredded, it makes the best material for insulation, because it is tightly woven, Rocks-Macqueen said.
The cotton insulation is biodegradable, safer and more efficient than fiberglass insulation, he said.
UNM ranked second place in collecting the most pairs of jeans in the event so far. Fresno State University is in first place, with 2,600 pairs of jeans.
UNM is one of 14 colleges that are participating in the denim drop program.
Student Tyler Van Riper collected 411 pairs of jeans.
He told local thrift stores and his church about the event, and they were happy to donate,
he said.
"Once they found out what the organization was all about - how they are going to collect and turn it into insulation and give it to Baton Rouge - they seemed excited about it and tried collecting as many as they could," he said.
Rocks-Macqueen said he was pleased with the participation.
"We collected 2 1/2 times what our goal was," he said. "We are really happy, and we are helping rebuild a school in Louisiana."
The event featured a demonstration of how 20 pairs of jeans can create insulation for a 15-square-foot wall.
The Dirty Laundry Tour was created by Cotton Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of cotton.
Rocks-Macqueen said it makes sense to donate old jeans.
"A lot of people have jeans just lying around," he said. "They just keep them around because they haven't decided to throw them out or take them to Goodwill, so we thought it would be an
awesome idea."
