Students from the University of Cergy-Pontoise near Paris had the idea to develop a heating and insulating blanket based on beeswax as part of their final-year project. This ecological blanket was developed to be distributed to the Homeless.
In winter, the homeless are particularly vulnerable and often have only cardboard boxes, clothes and blankets to protect themselves from the cold. Four students in their third year of biology at the University of Cergy-Pontoise have taken up this issue to develop their end-of-study project.
The project is called Move on EcoBlanket and is intended to be distributed to the homeless in the Île de France region. The four students said they were aware that it will never replace a roof but they thought it could bring a plus, the challenge here is to combine eco-responsible materials meeting the properties of insulation and heating while trying to provide maximum comfort.
According to the students, the blankets usually used by the homeless do not protect enough from the cold, take water and become wet quickly, thus losing their usefulness. Conversely, survival blankets insulate moisture and maintain body temperature, but they do not produce heat and warm the body.
The blanket developed by the four students contains a layer of cotton heated with beeswax balls, which also makes it waterproof. It also contains a mixture of cellulose wadding, sheep’s wool and an additional layer of cotton to increase its ability to resist cold and avoid the risk of mold and flammability. During the defence of the project in 2021, the students managed to collect €500 from the platform Wweeddoo, sum that allowed them to manufacture between five and ten blankets to concretize their concept and hope to develop it by obtaining the support of several companies wishing to participate.
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