Biodegradable Plastic From Animal Protein Waste

Animal protein waste like blood meal and feathers could soon be used to make biodegradable plastic thanks to a new process developed at the University of Waikato in Hamilton.

The innovative process utilises industry-standard moulding machinery and is currently being patented through WaikatoLink.

University of Waikato chemical engineer Dr Johan Verbeek, who developed the process with Masters student Lisa van den Berg, says it is highly gratifying to use low-value sustainable waste to create a high-value product that breaks down without polluting the environment.

“The material we can produce has the strength of polyethylene – the plastic used in milk bottles and plastic supermarket bags – but it’s fully biodegradable,” Dr Verbeek says. “Proteins are polymers so we know they can be turned into plastics. Plant proteins have successfully been used to make bio-plastics, but animal protein has always ended up gumming up the extruder. The process we’ve developed gets around that problem. People said that it couldn’t be done – but we did it!”

Dr Verbeek expects the new bio-plastic will be suitable for agricultural plastic sheeting, seedling trays, plant pots and even biodegradable golf tees, for which, he says there is a surprisingly high demand.

A group of design students is drawing up a blueprint for a large-scale plant to assess the commercial viability of producing bio-plastics from animal protein waste.