In the US, more than ten million vehicles are scrapped each year, sending millions of tons of waste to landfills, thus creating major environmental problem. At present, automotive textiles are made mostly from synthetic, petro-based polymer materials that are not biodegradable. The use of cellulosic fibers, such as cotton, kenaf, ramie, and bagasse, in the manufacturing of nonwoven composites for a variety of automotive parts could significantly enhance their “end of life” biodegradability and also improve their thermal insulation properties. three different sets of “sandwich-type” nonwoven materials were manufactured by layering cellulosic webs and readily biodegradable binders, such as polyvinyl alcohol and Eastar Biocopolymer. A “Steady State” heat flow meter was used for evaluation of the thermal insulation properties of these readily biodegradable, low cost nonwoven composites. The experimental data demonstrates that the thermal insulation properties of cellulosic-based nonwoven composite materials vary significantly, depending on the type of the vegetable fibers, nature and quantity of the binder, design, and the resulting bulk density of composites.