Insulation waste · what actually happens to it
What happens to old fibreglass batts? Every batt job leaves a pile of plastic behind.
I’m Peter Johnson, a Brisbane insulation contractor since 1986. Watch the video below and you’ll see exactly what a batt removal job leaves behind: bagged fibreglass batts carted off site with nothing to do with them but dump them. Cellulose Fibre Insulation runs a different path from the bag going in to the bag coming back out. This page walks through why.
The plastic waste left behind by a fibreglass batt job
The plastic bags carted off site and dumped from a batt job — nothing you can do with them, unlike our reusable cellulose bags.
Read the transcript
G'day guys, Peter here from Comfort Zone Insulation. I just wanted to show you something. I mean, when we sell cellulose fibre insulation, it all comes in reusable bags and we empty them out in the machine, pump it into your roof and then bring the bags back and refill them every time. So, might refill them a thousand times, I don't know. But when you buy batts, they all come in plastic bags and this is just our two trailers here, so this one here and someone over there. And we just fill those up with these plastic bags that are left over from batts. So that's a whole bag full of bags there and I mean there's some other rubbish in there from sites and things, fibreglass batts, they all come in those wrappers, you know, here's some oil foil out of roofs. So that's, you know, those are the Earthwool ones, they're particularly hard plastic. So all of this ends up in landfill. Just bags full of bags, you know. And out of one job, this whole bag here full, you know, like an average size house that would have two of those bags full of plastic. So that's about, you know, it's probably about two or three weeks worth of rubbish from us in that trailer there. But we don't do a lot of batt jobs, that's just a couple of batt jobs a week, you know. Anyway, alright, so that's another reason why the cellulose fibre is a lot better product to use and a lot more environmentally friendly. There's just no rubbish left over and, you know, the product's guaranteed for life against fire and vermin and it's pumped in so there's no gaps. It's a fantastic product and it uses one-twentieth of the energy to produce as what fibreglass does in the first place and then there's no rubbish left over when you're done. So, and if you ever want to, you know, pull it out or whatever, we can vacuum it out in 20 years' time. Like I've had jobs where, you know, 20 years later we can vacuum it out and pump it into another job, you know. It's just such a good product whereas all the fibreglass that you pull out after it's been in a roof for 20 years, there's no way in the world that's going back into another job and it's just rubbish. Alright, so I'll leave that with you.
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What our customers say
Genuine Google & hipages reviews from Comfort Zone customers across SE Queensland.
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Angela M.
SE Queensland
“The fact that I can't even tell it's 6 degrees outside when I wake up in the morning speaks for itself. Have wasted so much money attempting to heat and cool an uninsulated home. Worth every $.”
- Phipages
P Peter
Alstonvale, 2024
“Connected with Comfort Zone Insulation and would recommend them”
- J
Jessa B.
Brisbane
“It dropped about 4 degrees straight away, and we added another 3 with the second job. I appreciate Peter's honesty, and the team showed pictures before and after.”
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Nola M
Birtinya, 2024
“They were courteous and competent.”
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Iain V-B.
Brisbane
“Quick and polite service. Great follow-up advice and photos sent for our records. Above and beyond what we expected. Would highly recommend.”
- Jhipages
Jennifer's E
Upper Caboolture, 2024
“Excellent customer service. Highly recommended. Has a profound knowledge of insulation products and has the best interest of his customer.”
- G
Gerry S
Fitzgibbon, 2023
“I used Comfort Zone and they have a done an excellent job.”
- Jhipages
Jennifer
Upper Caboolture, 2024
“Excellent customer service. Highly recommend. Has a profound knowledge of insulation products and has the customer best interest.”
- J
Jung K
Riverhills, 2023
“An experienced family operation. Highly recommend. Thank you for the great job!”
- Dhipages
Diane A
Ormeau, 2024
“Peter and crew did a great job I would definitely recommend them”
- D
David H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Completed the job as quoted and to a high standard. Great personal service. Would highly recommend Comfort Zone for ceiling installation work.”
- Thipages
Timea
Highland Park, 2023
“I was extremely satisfied with the service they provided. They gave a very thourough explanation of the materials used, the way the work will be carried out and the price I had to pay was the exact amount quoted, no hidden costs included. They arrived on time, well prepared and workwas carried out exactly how they said it would be, they were super efficient, well prepared and were kind enough to even clean up after themselves. The services they provided was second to none! I don't hesitate to recommend them for any insulation job!”
- B
Benjamin H
Carseldine, 2019
“Very good explanation about their works. Advice of existing problems with the roof. Clean work. Very professional.”
- Mhipages
Mark
Pottsville, 2017
“Michelle, we are done - Peter from comfort zone insulation was very helpful. very honest with his recommendations - in fact he told me that the product my daughter had if installed correctly was superb. Thanks Peter you are a champion and i would recommend you to any person that was wanting professional advice and old school service.”
- I
Ian G
Burnside, 2019
“Good information, communication and professionalism.”
- Jhipages
Jessica
Pottsville, 2016
“This business offers a fantastic product that other businesses did not. Pump in ceiling insulation. Knowledge of the industry second to none.”
- D
Danny D
Boondall, 2018
“He explained everything he was going to do and the different types of insulation they used. He talked through the different options but made a recommendation for the one most people use, which is the one I chose. He was very understanding towards what I needed and not about himself.”
- Jhipages
Jack
Pottsville, 2023
“Excellent communication and informative. Professional.”
- G
Graham R
Riverhills, 2018
“Comfort Zone. Turned up ahead of time, completed in about 2 hours, cleaned up. All good. Very motivated installation team.”
- Thipages
Tony P
Redland Bay, 2023
“Very knowledgeable about insulation”
- A
Alex B
West Ipswich, 2018
“Fast, friendly, efficient.”
- Shipages
Steve
Redland Bay, 2017
“Excellent job and reasonable price.”
- L
Luke D
Mcdowall, 2017
“Peter did a good job. It was a quick and clean service. I'm happy to recommend!”
- Bhipages
Bruce H
Kuluin, 2023
“Prompt and efficient quoting.”
- B
Brendon
Brays Creek, 2016
“Peter supplied and installed roof insulation for me. He was very informative and provided good advice.”
- Ghipages
Gerry S
Fitzgibbon, 2023
“I used Comfort Zone and they have a done an excellent job.”
- T
Trevor G
Brookside Centre, 2016
“Excellent tradesmen from Comfort Zone Insulation. They were punctual and cleaned up after. Highly recommended.”
- Thipages
Tamara
Underwood, 2023
“Peter is honest, hard-working and came on time. Knew excally what he was talking about and answered my questions. Would 100% recommend”
- J
John G
Beaudesert, 2019
“Peter is an honest person who provided me with the information I wanted then performed a good job with great results for the benefit of myself and my family.”
- Shipages
Sterling G
Ashgrove, 2023
“Comfort Zone were very knowledge with great communication and follow up”
- Ghipages
Graham R
Riverhills, 2018
“Comfort Zone. Turned up ahead of time completed in +- 2 hours cleaned. All good. Very motivated installation team”
- Jhipages
Jung K
Riverhills, 2023
“An experienced family operation. Highly recommend. Thank you for the great job!”
- Khipages
Kathy A
North Lakes, 2023
“We connected with Peter through HiPages and he was prompt, professional and even came back after the job was complete to assist with a question we had. We would highly recommend Peter for further insulation works.”
- Dhipages
David H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Completed the job as quoted and to a high standard. Great personal service. Would highly recommend Comfort Zone for ceiling installationn work.”
- Shipages
Sue H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Incredible customer service”
- Ehipages
Eileen C
Cedar Vale, 2021
“Quality work, good customer service, prompt”
- Chipages
Craig M
Woody Point, 2021
“Called within 5 minutes of request. Very knowledgeable and explained job in great detail, provide great advice in prior preparation for works required. Very friendly and helpful.”
- Jhipages
Jenny C
Plainland, 2021
“Although I did not hire Peter I was impressed with the initial contact and the knowledge he was willing to impart. I was treated with respect which I appreciated. I would have hired but I received a lower quote.”
- Qhipages
Quinton
Coomera, 2020
“Professional installation without any short cuts. True to their word with high integrity. Response from Comfort Zone Insulation”
- Ghipages
Gary P
West Kempsey, 2020
“Came & Gave a free quote”
What a batt removal job actually leaves behind
Old fibreglass batts don’t come out clean. They come out as a pile of bagged plastic.
Pull old fibreglass batts out of a roof and they’re rolled up and bagged for the trip down the ladder. Loose glass fibre floating around a work site isn’t something you leave open to the air. Every one of those bags is plastic. Every one of them is heading to the same place: off site and into general waste. There’s no second use for a bag of degraded fibreglass batts, no program I’ve found that takes them back, and no way to send them anywhere except the tip.
That’s not a one-off on a bad job. It’s every fibreglass batt removal I’ve ever done, in forty years on roofs.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
A skip bin filled with old pink and yellow fibreglass batts pulled out during a removal job — Strathpine. Every bag in a bin like this ends the same way, at the tip.
Two lots of plastic, not one
The plastic problem starts on install day, not just on removal day.
Fibreglass batts arrive on site compressed and wrapped in plastic packaging, one pack at a time. Each pack gets torn open and the wrap gets binned as the batts go in, so a full house of batts is a full house of plastic wrap in the skip before a single batt has even settled. Years later, when those batts are pulled out again, they get bagged in plastic a second time for the trip to the tip.
I’ve spent forty years installing and removing insulation across South East Queensland and Northern NSW. I’ve never been able to find a facility that takes either lot of plastic back, so on my jobs both trips end at general waste. That’s the state of it as far as I’ve been able to establish, not a worst-case example. If there’s a take-back program running that I haven’t found, tell me and I’ll use it.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Plastic-wrapped rolls of new glasswool batts stacked in a shipping container. Every one of those wraps comes off and goes in the bin before the batt itself ever reaches a roof.
Bag in, bag out, same bag
Our cellulose fibre comes in reusable bags, not single-trip plastic.
Cellulose Fibre Insulation is delivered to a job in bags that are built to be refilled and run through the factory again, rather than torn open once and thrown away. The same bag gets reused hundreds of times over many years before it’s retired, so a house full of cellulose fibre doesn’t leave a house full of plastic wrap in the skip the way a house full of batts does.
We can say that with confidence because we manufacture Cellulose Fibre Insulation ourselves at our own factory in Tiaro. The bags come back to us, get refilled, and go back out on the next job.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Where the fibre itself comes from
It’s made from recycled paper before it’s even bagged the first time.
Fibreglass batts are made by super-heating spun rock or glass fibre in a furnace. Cellulose Fibre Insulation is made by pulping and shredding recycled paper, usually post-consumer waste newsprint that would otherwise be heading to landfill itself — about 80% of our product by weight, our own figure for what actually goes through the Tiaro factory. A peer-reviewed study puts the manufacturing energy at 0.94 to 3.3 MJ per kilogram for cellulose fibre against 10.8 to 45 MJ per kilogram for commercial thermal insulation — about 90% less at the midpoint of those two ranges. Frontiers in Built Environment (2023) — “Energy incorporated per kilogram of cellulose is between 0.94 and 3.3 MJ/kg, a reduced range of values compared to commercial thermal insulation that is between 10.8 and up to 45 MJ/kg” (citing Lopez Hurtado et al. 2016 and Pal et al. 2021) — the recycled-paper % above is CPA's own figure, not from this paper ↗
The Australian Government’s own Your Home guide runs its own numbers. They point the same way: it puts glasswool insulation at 57.5 MJ per kilogram in its embodied-energy table for common building materials. That’s higher than the top of the commercial range in the study above. It’s a government figure for the exact product a batt job puts in your roof. yourhome.gov.au — Embodied energy of common building materials: “Glasswool insulation 57.5” MJ/kg ↗ Your Home does not publish a cellulose fibre figure of its own, so the two documents sit beside each other rather than confirming one another.
Recycled paper feedstock, low manufacturing energy, and a bag that goes back to the factory instead of the tip. That’s the environmental case for Cellulose Fibre Insulation. Every part of it is something we can point to a document or a photo for.
The other end of the product’s life
When cellulose fibre comes back out of a roof, it goes back to the factory, not the tip.
Old Cellulose Fibre Insulation is vacuumed out rather than ripped out by hand. From there it can be brought back to our own factory in Tiaro and remanufactured into new bags, ready to go back out on the next job. That’s only possible because we manufacture Cellulose Fibre Insulation ourselves and control both ends of the process, from the recycled paper going in to the vacuum hose coming out.
A batt company that buys its product in from an overseas manufacturer has no equivalent option. Once a batt is bagged for the tip, that’s the end of it.
Both jobs, side by side
The same removal job, two different waste streams.
This is specifically about the packaging and end-of-life waste each product leaves behind, not R-value or install quality.
| Stage | Fibreglass batts | Cellulose Fibre Insulation |
|---|---|---|
| Packaging on delivery | Compressed plastic wrap per pack, torn open and binned | Reusable bag, refilled and sent back out again |
| Feedstock | Newly spun rock or glass fibre | Recycled paper, pulped and shredded at our Tiaro factory |
| Removal from the roof | Rolled up and bagged in plastic by hand | Vacuumed out |
| Where it ends up | General waste, no take-back program found | Back to our Tiaro factory, remanufactured into new bags |
Common questions
Fibreglass batt waste, the questions I get.
What actually happens to old fibreglass batts when they come out of a roof?+
We roll them up, bag the debris in plastic and cart the bags off site to the tip. That's true whether the batts are being replaced because they've settled and gapped or pulled out because a house is having its insulation redone properly. Once they're bagged there's nothing further to do with them — they go into general waste, same as any other bagged rubbish off a job site.
Where does the plastic from a batt job actually end up?+
There are two lots of plastic on a typical batt job. Fibreglass batts arrive wrapped and compressed in plastic packaging, which gets torn open and binned as each pack is laid. Then, when old batts are removed years later, the debris gets bagged in plastic again to cart off site. In my own experience across South East Queensland and Northern NSW, I've never been able to find anywhere that takes either lot back, so on my jobs both trips end at general waste.
Is Cellulose Fibre Insulation more environmentally friendly than fibreglass batts?+
On the two things I can actually stand behind, yes. Our Cellulose Fibre Insulation comes in reusable bags that get refilled and run through the factory again and again instead of being thrown out after one job, so there's no waste plastic on the way in. And the fibre itself starts life as recycled paper rather than newly quarried rock or melted glass, with a peer-reviewed manufacturing-energy figure of 0.94 to 3.3 MJ per kilogram against 10.8 to 45 MJ per kilogram for commercial thermal insulation — about 90% less at the midpoint of those two ranges.
What happens to Cellulose Fibre Insulation when it's removed from a roof?+
It gets vacuumed out rather than ripped out by hand, then brought back to our own factory in Tiaro and remanufactured into new bags. That's a genuinely different end point to a batt job's plastic bags heading to the tip. It's only possible because we manufacture the product ourselves rather than buying it in from an overseas supplier with no way to take it back.
Does the same waste problem apply to loose-pumped fibreglass, like Knauf Jetmax?+
It arrives in bags rather than compressed packs, so the packaging story is a little different. I haven't found a program that takes those bags back for reuse either. The comparison on this page is specifically about fibreglass batts, since that's the removal job that generates the pile of plastic in the video above.
Figures on this page are read from the cited peer-reviewed and government sources, current as of July 2026. Everything else on this page describes what we’ve personally seen and done on real jobs. This page is general information, not an environmental compliance claim about any specific disposal or recycling facility.
Do you have fibreglass batts in your roof now? We can quote to remove them or fix your insulation.
If you’d rather your next insulation job didn’t leave a pile of plastic behind, the two products that don’t work that way are Cellulose Fibre Insulation and polyester batts. Get a quote and we’ll talk you through both.
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Peter Johnson
Owner / installer · Comfort Zone Insulation Team® · Since 1986