Cotton Inc.’s first day of their Dirty Laundry Tour went through the wash during Tuesday’s rain, but Wednesday’s sunshine allowed students to end up in a dryer of fun and educational games near the Campanile.

The Dirty Laundry Tour focuses on educating people about caring for denim, and more importantly, a recycling program that takes donated old or worn denim and turns the material into a heat-retentive insulation to use in homes built by Habitat for Humanity.

The ISU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America is helping to collect the denim on campus, and will continue to do so up until Halloween.

“We collect the denim and it goes to the recyclers, who take out the rivets and the zippers, shred them and treat them,” said Chris Byington, assistant tour manager of the Dirty Laundry Tour.

Byington said the denim donated last year helped to insulate 12 Habitat homes, and the program will expand this year.

The denim insulation process is a bit more expensive than fiber glass insulation, Byington said, but it is only because of the “recycling factor” involved. He said 12 pairs of jeans can insulate four home panels.

The attractions setup to educate students by the Campanile included trivia game show “The Wheel of Cotton,” two make-your-own-shirt stands, and an educational “Cotton: From Blue To Green” tent that showcased the recycling process. A “Don’t Get Stuck With a Mystery Fabric” tent had participants compete to catch large fabric tags in a vacuum chamber.

Amanda Sterns, a Dirty Laundry staff member in the “Mystery Fabric” tent, said even though periods of torrential rainfall dampened the festivities on Tuesday, the excellent turnout on Wednesday made up for it.

“There has been a bigger turnout today. But I’ve learned that to wash your cotton, you’ve got to turn it inside out,” she said.

Students who attended the event did get their jeans wet on Tuesday, but on both days they got their chance to win free items, including a Tide Video iPod and iPod Nanos, but the donation message was not cloudy.

“I heard there was cool free stuff. I also learned that you can save energy if you wash your jeans in cold water. I’m going to donate my jeans tomorrow,” said Emily Cartwright, sophomore in dairy science.

Nyle Kline, junior in animal science, won a Tide Video iPod in the “Wheel of Cotton” game. He said he had some knowledge about cotton beforehand and learned some other things as well.

“The questions were different facts about cotton. [After winning the iPod] I will continue buying cotton products,” he said.