Water bottles, plastic straws, shopping bags, cups, and other single-use plastics often end up in landfills and waterways, harming wildlife and releasing harmful toxins into the environment as they decompose.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have made an incredible breakthrough: they’ve discovered how to convert leftover sawdust powder and agro-residues into a Styrofoam-like packaging material. This means that the resulting biomaterial could replace millions of single-use plastic items.
The new recyclable, biodegradable biomaterial could help solve the worsening problem of plastic pollution and, hopefully, someday replace the millions of tons of plastic used in single-use items.
Lokendra Pal and Lucian Lucia, professors in the Department of Forest Biomaterials, have discovered how to convert leftover sawdust powder and agro-residues into a Styrofoam-like packaging material.
Pal and Lucia are currently conducting pilot trials; they’re mostly focused on manufacturing packaging and food service products. These are often made from styrofoam (polystyrene), which is a petroleum-based plastic. However, styrofoam is not recyclable and not biodegradable.
“Items made from Styrofoam aren’t used very long before they’re discarded. But they pose a major threat to human and ecosystem health,” Pal said. “The lightweight composition and buoyancy of Styrofoam allows it to float for long distances in water. It also can absorb and transport toxic pollutants, such as mercury.”
Other materials have developed around the world, such as biopolymer and fiber-based alternatives. However, these alternatives require a lot of water, energy and chemicals to produce, and therefore cost nearly 10 times as much as the material developed by the NC State researchers.
According to NC State: “Pal and Lucia have developed a production process that doesn’t require water. Instead, the researchers mechanically sieve, grind and mix sawdust with agro-residues to form a powder. The powder is then combined with a binder before it’s casted or molded into an item.
Also, because the researchers are utilizing sawdust, the production process is virtually zero-waste and zero-emissions. Sawmills and similar operations usually dispose of their leftover sawdust by burning it. This not only ends the life cycle of a valuable byproduct, but it also produces the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.”
“Our research has focused heavily on environmental and economic sustainability,” Pal said. “We know this material is not only recyclable and environmentally compatible, but also biodegradable in saltwater. It will simply disappear over time and consequently provide nutrients to aquatic life.”
