Eco Plastic Formed with Water (Hemp Resource)

[eppur_se_muova]

Eco Plastic Formed with Water

By Tom Shelley

Tom Shelley reports on a novel polymer derived from natural fibres that depends on neither resins nor binders

By grinding up natural cellulose-containing materials with water, it is possible to produce a mouldable polymer. It can be made from a wide range of normally waste materials, and spray moulded or formed into commercial products with mechanical properties similar to those of hard wood. The material contains no toxic materials and is completely recyclable, sustainable and biodegradable.

The first commercial factory producing the material in bulk goes on stream this month. The Zelfo process was invented in Europe in 1992 and patented in early 2000 by an Austrian team now based in New South Wales in Australia. The principle inventor was Martin Ernegg, now the company’s technical director.

It relies on the fact that wet cellulose fibres stick to each other, as in the manufacture of paper and papier maché. “The material is cost effective in some specific applications,” says managing director Paul Benhaim. “Our current business model means Zelfo is best suited for objects with runs of 1 to 10,000 – any more than that, and regular plastics usually beat us.”
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more: http://www.hemp-resource.com/hemp-articles/eco-plastic-formed-with-water.html

A quick Web search suggests that this product is now being marketed as Zelfo, not Hempstone, and is used principally for making didgeridoos. (I did not make up that last bit.)

[AlecBGreen]

1. cool!

small-scale production will become more of a necessity as transportation costs increase due to peak oil. Also, plastic is dreived from petroleum...

[phantom power]

2. sounds not that different than cellophane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane