Vermiculite Insulation

Upon receiving a home energy audit from The Energuy (www.Energuy.ca) we were notified that the insulation in the attic contained vermiculite. The concern was that it might contain asbestos. Our option was to either leave the insulation undisturbed or remove the potentially harmful fibers. Since we needed to tie in to the existing attic, we would be disturbing the insulation and this could cause asbestos poisoning in all those who work on the house. So, our only new option was to remove all of it. This is not an easy task.
Since the insulation has a base of vermiculite covered by cellulose fibers, removing it takes a high powered vacuum and a lot of disposal space. Even though the home is only 1300 sq ft., the disposal will require 60-80 large garbage bags and a lot of patience.
After the first 15 garbage bags, we realized it was much easier to vacuum the material directly into the garage. However, removing the debris to the garbage bin was not an easy task. The cellulose would blow away all over the neighborhood so we needed to spray it with water to keep it from flying away.
We then realized that we could vacuum the material directly into the garbage bin with water continuously spraying onto it as it was ejected.
At the end of the day, this job is extremely time consuming, messy, and dangerous.