Analysis: low cost and eco-friendly feathers could replace the plastic used in everything from horticultural products to food packaging
By Nicholas Dunne, DCU and Eoin Cunningham, Queen's University Belfast
68 billion tonnes: that’s how much waste and low value by-products the poultry industry produces every year. It’s the equivalent to the total annual domestic waste of 150 million people or the combined populations of France and Germany. And that doesn’t include half eaten Christmas turkeys.
Chickens are the most common bird on the planet, with over 25 billion of them all clucking, laying eggs and shedding feathers. There’s another half a billion turkeys on top of that. So what’s to be done with all of this waste? Right now some of it is reused as compost, fertiliser and pet food, but a great deal of it ends up in landfills or worse.
Between all the bones, feathers, offal and blood, there’s a lot to think about and this waste needs to be sustainably managed, not dumped in a hole in the ground. Nitrogen, phosphorous, heavy metals (particularly copper and zinc) and pathogenic microorganisms contained in the waste are of primary concern. The poultry sector is also a significant emitter of greenhouse gases.
The by-products and waste produced by the poultry industry can replace the plastics we use every day
Well, thankfully there’s a solution. Research we’ve been conducting in partnership with global poultry producer Moy Park indicates that bone, meal, eggshell and feathers hold considerable potential for the polymer industry replacing unsustainable oil feedstocks. Feathers have the potential to generate 100% waste derived polymer alternatives and applications range from horticultural products to a new generation of food packaging. They’re both low cost and environmentally friendly.
That sounds great, but what's a polymer you might ask? Polymers are materials made of long, repeating chains of molecules. The term polymer is frequently used to describe all sorts of plastics, which are synthetic polymers. Natural polymers include rubber or wood.
Due to the increasing strain on finite petroleum resources, fluctuations in oil prices, increasing levels of environmental pollution, a shortage of landfill sites and positive environmental legislative action, the polymer industr see the need for recycling and bio-alternatives. At the same time, the global agri-food sector is facing huge challenges to manage resources and raw materials and they too are recognising the importance, and potential, of circular economic practises. Solutions for both industries lie in recovering and repurposing agri-waste.
It may be that the chicken burger or McNuggets you're eating will be served up in a container made from chicken feathers
We found that the by-products and waste produced by the poultry industry can find new applications in the production of polymers replacing the plastics we use every day. We were able to demonstrate the application of eggshells, bone and litter ash to create new composites but we were most excited by the potential to convert poultry feathers into an entirely new oil free bio-polymer.
Crude oil savings were five times higher than use as a bioenergy source. A pressing sustainability issue for the polymer industry is its reliance on oil supplies needed for plastic production. The use of converted poultry waste as high load filler/additives can provide significant savings in oil usage.
We are fast moving towards a world where fossil fuels are no longer front and centre when it comes to supplying our energy. But at the same time, demand is going nowhere. Managing our future energy needs is about managing the resources we have better, making use of waste products and realising their potential. The past two years have seen a huge rise in online shopping, home deliveries for food, things that need to be packaged, covered and wrapped. It may be that the chicken burger or McNuggets you’re eating will be served up in a container made from chicken feathers.
Professor Nicholas Dunne is the Chair of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing, the Executive Director of Biodesign Europe and the Executive Director of the Centre for Medical Engineering Research at DCU. Dr. Eoin Cunningham is a Senior Lecturer in Advanced Materials and Processing at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
