A new research by Fehime Vatansever and her colleagues reported at the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) the introduction of a partially recyclable plastic made of meat and bone meal without utilizing other raw materials such as natural gas or oil.
Earlier in 1997, the U. S Food and Drug Administration had prohibited the practice of giving the meat and bone meal (MBM) to sheep, cattle, elk, bison and farmed deer and other countries followed suit. The ban was imposed to cut down chances of the spread of Mad Cow Disease, a rare but deadly brain disease that spread in the UK, by feeding the animals utilizing the meat and bone meal made from infected animals. This has resulted in the dumping of billions of pounds of meat and bone meal as wastes in the landfills. The meat and bone meals from cows were treated with tough chemical agents to do away with the presence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and deposited in special type of landfills.
Vatansever and her colleagues have developed a process to convert the meat and bone meal into biodegradable plastics. They blended the new bio-plastic with ultra-high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a very hard plastic material that is utilized in the making of snowboards, skis, PVC windows, joint replacements and other products. The performed lab tests proved that the new and blended MBM/UHMWPE plastic has roughly the same amount of durability as that of UHMWPE with an additional partially biodegradable feature. During the production process the presence of BSE elements in the meat and bone meal are made inactive. Vatansever, said that the new process has enabled the manufacture of a robust and partly eco-friendly material while reducing the dependence and usage of fossil fuel.
Source: http://portal.acs.org