Rubber Chicken

On Thursday, August 3rd, we traveled to the USDA’s research facility in Maryland, a location that also housed FBI and ATF agencies.



We were there to meet Dr. Walter and his colleague Dr. Justin. They’ve spent the last few years perfecting a new plastic made – from all things – chicken feathers.



After cleaning and stripping the feathers, they grind up the quills, which consist of keratin – a natural polymer. Instead of adding such things as polycarbonate or fiberglass to increase the strength, these chemists and engineers are using glycerol – another waste product from the biodiesel industry (they are also experimenting with fibers from coconuts, bananas, you name it).



That makes this product 100% bio-based, 100% biodegradable and an excellent replacement for polyethylene.



Justin, who used to work for big oil, demonstrated how they put the material into an extruder, make a film, grind that up into pellets and injection-mould it into everything from cups, bags, flower pots and mulching films for the horticulture industry.



So just how viable is chicken plastic? Well, consider that 2.5 billion pounds of chicken feathers are produced in the USA every year and the horticultural industry alone is approximately a $40 billion industry. Not only that, but they’ve got the price down to 50 cents a pound! That’s about 20-30 cents less than some petroleum plastics!



Cryptic Moth applauds these scientists for finding value in waste, an obvious choice for petroleum alternatives.



Out

I+G