EU poultry industry to study feather-based plastics packaging

摘要

A European project is looking at whether it's possible to use poultry waste products in bio-based packaging for, among other things, poultry products. The European poultry industry annually throws away more than 3 million metric tons of feathers from poultry slaughterhouses, according to the new Karma 2020 project. Currently, those feathers typically end up in a landfill or are incinerated, according to the Spanish plastics technology center Aimplas.But those feathers also are an important source of keratin - a tough, fibrous, structural protein that can be used to produce different high added-value products, such as fertilizers, biopIastics , biocomposites, additives for biodegradable packages and coatings for the fabrics industry.