Making Car Parts With Coconuts & the Dangers of Eco-Tokens

i think the last thing we need this day n age is using food for any other than eating...

Coconut husk fiber is called coir. There is actually a thriving world trade in coir right now - countries like Sri Lanka and India export millions of dollars worth every year. In developing countries it is used for mattress fiber and rope, and in the US it is used for doormats and those little porcupine-looking boot scrapers. So, the American consumer should be fairly familiar with the product even though they (or you) probably had no idea it existed.

Often, a coir industry grows when there is already a coconut oil or dessicated cocount (the flakes) market - it is unlikely that someone will be agglomerating stray coconuts that they find on the beach. The benefit of incorporating coir into car parts is that they are replacing a synthetic product with a natural one (a by-product, even), often with improved functionality. It provides employment opportunities in rural areas - and perhaps opportunities that involve some processing instead of just exporting the fiber.

The downside is that if we started making everything out of coir, they would eventually have to expand crop area into areas that are currently forrested, but that doesn't seem to be anywhere on the horizon - it is just breathing new life, money and technology into a industry that was in decline.

I doubt truck bed liner manufacturers would take the time or effort to greenwash, but I'm disappointed that you jumped on the anti-greenwashing bandwagon without thinking of the other positive environmental and social implications puming up the coir industry might have.

Thanks for this article. I visited coastal Sri Lanka two years after the tsunami. Local economies had been decimated. Many small entrepreneurs were pinning their hopes on being able to sell the locally-abundant coconut fibers (coir) to the global market. The problem is that, while there are many applications for coir, the market can easily become flooded with coir supply. Innovative uses such as that described here seem like a good way to hook local entrepreneurs in. The big challenge, of course, is making sure that the entrepreneurs are paid a fair price for their work and their goods! (Good caveat, too, re greenwashing potential from car companies--but if coir can be used for these applications, there must be plenty of other similar ones for household products and maybe industrial products as well.)

"i think the last thing we need this day n age is using food for any other than eating... "

They're not using the edible part to make that fiber.

"I'm disappointed that you jumped on the anti-greenwashing bandwagon without thinking of the other positive environmental and social implications puming up the coir industry might have."

Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point is not that this is a bad thing, it is that it must be done right and we must keep an eye on the bigger picture. In the context of a car, a floor mat is better than nothing, but it's not much.

Its amazing to hear carparts can also be made with the help of Coconuts Still there is a possibility of a situation.. the shortage of coconuts may be overcommed in future.

Thanks
Jack

Its amazing to hear carparts can also be made with the help of Coconuts Still there is a possibility of a situation.. the shortage of coconuts may be overcommed in future.

Thanks
Jack

"It must be done right and we must keep an eye on the bigger picture."

I believe that it IS being done right, with an eye on the big picture. Scientists have only recently discovered
that coir can be used in conjunction with other materials to make composites with superior performance to their
synthetic counterparts..and then biodegrade when they've reached the end of their useful lives. There are initiatives underway by several other universities in the US, Europe and Asia, as well as by private companies. Coir is already used in the production of autoparts (the seat cushions in the Mercedes C Class are rumored to be constructed out of coir and natural rubber), for making netting that is used to control erosion in construction or disaster areas, and incorporating charcoal (from coir) into performance apparel fiber that gives it anti-odor or anti-bacterial properties.

The increased use of coir for technological applications has already and will continue to bring attention to the
need for more efficient, safer and more sustainable production practices in an industry that has essentially
operated at the cottage level for decades or possibly centuries. A bed liner may not sound like much, but using an organic material to create something with the strength and durability of the current synthetic product is no small feat!

Interesting article and gathered some new information.Thanks.

"Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point is not that this is a bad thing, it is that it must be done right and we must keep an eye on the bigger picture. In the context of a car, a floor mat is better than nothing, but it's not much. "

There are, however, those people-and we all probably know at least one of them-that will avoid at all costs something that is viewed as ecologically/environmentally friendly and wouldn't be caught dead driving a Prius or even a Tahoe hybrid (I overheard recently "There's nothing wrong with the amount we're consuming-that's the American way. It's our right to use as much as we feel like." I got off target...anyway, I think this, while not much of a change, would at least be something that the people that fit into the example above can embrace, or at least not mind so much.

Doesn't coconut coir degrade within a few years? I thought this is why it is used in landscape erosion control applications, riverbank stabilization, even green roof components on SF's California Academy of Sciences--so that it will biodegrade, leaving plants to sustain the work.

happyfarmr, above, says that coir products will "biodegrade when they've reached the end of their useful lives." How does the product know when it has reached the end of its useful life?

the use of coir is really only limited by imagination for this form of fibre.. and it can replace certain other fibres low in sustainable supply such as peat

coir pots of any size as well as coir landscape fabric for agriculture on slopes for initial soil stabilization

here's one websight http://www.coirtrade.com/
and another http://www.soilstabilisation.org/

try the big G on 'coir vs peat'

and remember, just because it seems like a good idea for all humanity, praised and debated for decades... once the 'numbers' are masticated properly it may turn out not to be the purported panacea we could use; ie biodiesel.. now we need to think out the prospect of switchgrass and cannabis for cellosic potential on marginal land with very little time to initiate wide scale implementation

so as long as forests aren't carved away to make way for more coconut plantations, environmental uses are preferable to the landfill or incinerator method of control, hey

keep on keepin' on, eS'