Liquid Wood: A Green Alternative to Plastic?

There are a lot of problems with plastic. It’s made from petroleum, it’s non-biodegradable and it contains all kinds of harmful substances like bisphenol-A and phthalates. But, we rely on it heavily, and there hasn’t been an alternative that’s quite as versatile – until now. At least, that’s what the creators of a new bio-plastic called Arboform are saying. Arboform is liquid wood derived from wood pulp-based lignin.

And, Arboform is no waste of trees. This liquid wood is actually created from waste byproducts of the papermaking industry. From MSNBC:

In paper mills, wood is typically separated into its three main components: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose.

Lignin, which tends to give paper a brownish hue, can be used for lower-quality newsprint but is most often separated out with a sulfite- or sulfate-based pulping process prior to the production of high-quality paper.

By mixing that discarded lignin with fibers and wax, Tecnaro, a spin-off German company, has refined a technique for producing plastic-like pellets. Under high-pressure conditions, Eisenreich said, the composite material behaves like melted plastic, allowing it to be injected through a nozzle into a mold and made into a wide range of forms.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology in Pfinztal, Germany have created toys, figurines, ballpoint pens, golf tees, loudspeaker boxes and even car parts from the material. Norbert Eisenreich, a senior researcher with the institute, says Arboform can be broken into pieces and recycled as filler or burned like wood.

Some environmental scientists warn that the material must be tested to ensure safety, especially if it’s going to be used for toys, but it sounds promising. It definitely seems as if it would be a huge improvement over plastic.

Link [MSNBC]

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