We’ve spent the last few months talking about the innovative research being conducted around the world to increase agricultural yield of various plants. This increase also means an increase in agricultural byproducts. It is always around Christmas every year when I realize the duality of acquiring more things. We get tons of presents, new things, and have parties, and then spend hours the next day cleaning and getting rid of trash. These waste problems are experienced in all kinds of various industries; in fact, the poultry industry recognizes that disposing the five tons of chicken feathers produced annually from the sixty-five tons of meat consumed is a daunting challenge. The feathers are worth very little and the cost of transporting them to landfills is high.

Australian researchers Andrew Poole, Jeffrey Church, and Mickey Huson have collaborated over ways to use such byproducts to create eco-friendly fibers. Their research explains the various proteins in the macromolecules of agricultural waste such as keratin in chicken feathers and gluten in wheat waste that can be used as the basis for the next generation of fibers.

Though this may sound rather unconventional, the researchers first produced fabrics from various agricultural materials, including milk proteins and peanuts, about half a century ago. While the fabric looked and felt like normal fabric, it performed poorly when it became wet. The hydrogen bonds between fibers would become weak, causing the cloth to degrade. Poole and his team show that the development of nanotechnology now has the ability to fix this problem and create longer-lasting and more conventional-looking fabric that is more natural (and ‘greener’).

If successful, these fabrics will not only provide more efficient means of using agricultural waste and bring more money to producers, but also help reduce the 38 million tons of synthetic fabric produced globally every year. With the vast rise in environmentally-conscious consumers, the demand for such material is also increasing. Perhaps one day all of our clothes may be produced entirely by natural components!

Research Article Link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/bm8010648
News Article Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090112094607.htm

Discussion Question: How can we put these agricultural wastes to other uses?