A team at Northeastern University in Boston created a sustainable material that can cool buildings or other objects without relying on conventional cooling systems. The aim is to reduce your utility bills while also decreasing your carbon footprint.
Dubbed as cooling paper, when applied to roofs of houses, warehouses and office buildings, it reflects hot solar rays away from the buildings and sucks heat out of the interior.
The product is made of paper waste, mixed with the material that makes up Teflon, and then formed into a water-repelling coat that can be applied to buildings. The porous microstructure of the natural fibers inside absorbs the indoor warmth and re-emits it away from the building.
The cooling paper isn’t just eco-friendly in its ability to reduce your energy footprint. It’s also recyclable. The material can be used in varied weather conditions and temperatures, then reduced to a pulp and reformed without losing one iota of its cooling properties. The process can be repeated over and over again.
What do you think of a fully-recyclable waste material that can cool buildings without any energy input? What other applications do you see? Please let us know in the comments below.