DES MOINES, Iowa — Researchers have developed ways to substitute chicken feathers for petroleum in some plastic products, and at least two companies are working to bring items ranging from biodegradable flower pots to office furniture to market.
The substitution would allow the United States to cut back on its oil use, however slightly, and give poultry producers another market for the more than 3 billion pounds of leftover chicken feathers they have each year, the developers and others said. The challenge, they added, is coming up with products manufacturers and consumers want at a price that's right.
"What works in the lab and what works commercially are two different things," said Sonny Meyerhoeffer, whose company began last fall selling flower pots made partly from feathers.
His company has patented a process for removing keratin resin from feathers to make plastics. Keratin, a tough protein fiber also found in fingernails, hair and horns, can replace petroleum in some cases. Meyerhoeffer's company sells flower pots that contain 40 percent bioresins, although it has been able to make ones that are completely biodegradable and made from feathers.
"It still needs a little refining," he said. "We're a year, maybe a year and a half away, from getting it perfected on a commercial scale."
The federal government has thrown its support behind such work. The research arms of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Nursery & Landscape Association are working to find ways to use keratin resin from avian feathers in plastic manufacturing. The landscape association's Horticultural Research Institute was granted the exclusive license rights for a 2006 patent for its research with keratin resin from avian feathers, the group's Web site says.
One hurdle for researchers is making sure any plastic they develop performs like petroleum-based products, so it's easy and inexpensive for manufacturers to substitute, said Marc Teffeau, the landscape association's director of research and regulatory affairs.
"If the manufacturer has to make major changes in the production line, or changes in a mold or equipment, then it drives the cost up to use these products," he said.
Like Meyerhoeffer's Eastern Bioplastics, LLC, the landscape association's partnership has started with flower pots. It's working with a nursery supply company in Pennsylvania to develop biodegradable pots for nurseries and greenhouses. Teffeau said they hope to have something for sale within six months.
Feathers, typically ground into meal for livestock and pet food and as fertilizer, never will fully replace petroleum in the 100 billion pounds of plastic used each year in the United States.
But Paul Bredwell, vice president of environmental programs for U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, said the industry welcomes alternative uses for the feathers left behind in processing poultry and that it gave money to Virginia Tech in 2009 to support related research. Feathers sell for about $450 per ton, but that could increase if demand from the plastics industry increases.
Development of new products has been slow because companies such as Harrisonburg, Va.-based Eastern Bioplastics don't have the same resources for research and development as the giant petroleum companies, said Barone, a partner in the firm.
Meyerhoeffer said Eastern Bioplastics has invested "millions" of dollars in the work but he declined to be more specific. The landscape association's partnership has spent about $400,000, Teffeau said.
Bill Weichman, landscape manager for Shenandoah, Iowa-based Earl May garden centers, said he has heard of the feather- based pots, but would want to see samples before making a purchase.
"Then there is the cost," Weichman said. "It would need to be reasonably comparable to similar products. Then we'd see how the customers feel about it."
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