Flax + Hemp + Kenaf: Optimal Materials For America
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 09.14.06
We are making everything with the wrong materials! Kenaf is better than trees for making paper. Flax and hemp are better than cotton for making clothing. Cork and flax (linoleum) make better flooring than vinyl or laminate. Wheat husks and sunflowers hulls make better cabinets than conventional particleboard.
Buckwheat and latex make better pillows and bedding than synthetics.
Organic wool makes better outerwear than synthetics.
Rapeseed makes better fuel than petroleum.
Starch from any number of plants makes better plastic than petroleum.
(Also native plants, properly investigated and grown may replace any of the above, e.g. the Land Institute.)
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Most of this is true.
BUT as a packaging designer who does alot of green work, the statement that "Corn makes better plastic than petrolium is false. While there is alot of R&D going on with PLAs, check out Dupont and Cargill Dow sites for info, there are still major pitfalls for PLAs right now, that perclude it from becoming a dominant plastic in the future:
1. Cost, comparied to the evil PVC PLAs are 100 times more expensive with out any of the versitility. Compared to RPET getting better but at least twice the price.
2. Pure PLA melts above 120 degrees, so when you ship it it must be in Coold trailers that use extra energy.
3. PLAs are brittle and crack easily. So this limits the processing options.
4. Currently, corn reqires alot of petro-chemical input as well as petroenergy. Big air and water wuality negatives, but given right farm practices, bio fuels and organic fertilizers this can be dimminished. Currently most Ag is petro chemical intensive. So, lets see some alt. to corn discussed.
This is blatant geen washing. Eco folks cannot look at things in idealized terms and not think that "others" are not going to do a little rsearch and then become suspect of sustainably minded peolpe. Lets, not BS people like the right wing.
Everything else in the article is true and I avidly campaign for these changes through designing differently and specifing these newer materials.
Hmmm, I need to do more research in this wool is better then synthetics. I believe Patagonia would suggest differently.
Depending on your needs either Wool or Capilene would be better. But there is definitely not, ohhh Wool is just BETTER.
Yes, I'd offer that merino wool, resists wind, regulates body temperature, and warms better than any synthetic material.
Wool will absorb about 30% of it's weight in water before it starts to feel wet. Synthetics feel wet after absorbing much less. If you are looking for something even warmer than wool, try alpaca. It's 7 times warmer than wool
A couple of months I ago I read on the BBC website about a man who wanted to test if it was possible to climb Mt. Everest using clothing available in the early part of the 20th century. Everything was cotton, silk and wool. The result was very positive: the climber said he was very warm and all the materials breathed better than the synthetics he was used to.
Personally I can't stand most synthetic tech fabrics--even Patagonia's which I consider to be pretty good.
Also: bacteria make biodegradable plastic better than corn!
Genes for Plastic (NYTimes, 9/12/2006)
By most measures, Ralstonia eutropha is an unusual bacterium. It feeds on carbon dioxide and hydrogen and stores energy in the form of plastic-like molecules called PHA’s. Strains of R. eutropha are used to make biodegradable plastics.
A team of scientists in Germany has now sequenced the genome of one strain. The work, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology, reveals about 50 genes that are probably involved in PHA accumulation and opens the way for bioengineering techniques to fine-tune the process.
sooooo pretty flowers :D