What if todays plastics could be made from materials that were not only sustainable but non toxic? Today, our plastics are made from oil which means not only are we putting toxic chemicals into our atmosphere, but we are also filling our environment with products that cannot bio-degrade.
A new company out of Australia has created a promising new product called Zeoform and it is made only from water and cellulose take from hemp plants. This means their plastic is not only eco-friendly in production but is also biodegradable!
As stated on their website:
Zeoform is a revolutionary material that changes everything. Made from cellulose fibres and water – and absolutely nothing else! Our patented process converts cellulose fibres into a super strong high tech moulding material capable of being formed into a multitude of products. ZEOFORM is 100% non-toxic, biodegradable and ‘locks up’ carbon from waste into beautiful, functional forms.
According to Zeoform, their product is very durable and relies only on the natural process of hydrogen bonding that takes place when cellulose fibres are mixed with water. No glue or bonding material is necessary because the bond created is already so strong. The final material can be formed into almost anything and can be cut, routed, machined, drilled, screwed, nailed and glued in the same way wood and wood composites can be. It can also be coloured/dyed, and finished in any way creators like.
The material is water and fire resistant inherently and can be enforced further in both categories with some small adjustments to ingredients. The product can be made into anything from car parts to paper, moulds, furniture, and even musical instruments – the possibilities are endless.
Given the practicality of the product, the company hopes to expand their patented technology and begin offering manufacturing licensees to larger facilities around the world. Given the fact that there is a lot of infrastructure already set up where this type of product can be built, switching over from non-sustainable and toxic methods to methods Zeoform uses is very possible and should be a high priority given our environmental state. Sure it might mean disaster for big oil, but isn’t it time we put us and the environment before profit?
It’s all about money
The prohibition of domestic hemp growth is about what everything is about in this country. It’s about money. The drug war is big business huge business. If hemp cultivation were legalized, there would be an awful lot of DEA agents out of a job.
Consider this: of the one-and-a-half billion cannabis plants found and destroyed by U.S. drug agents between 1993 and 1997, only fourteen million were marijuana. That’s 0.9 percent. That means that 99.1 percent were low-THC hemp. Legalizing hemp would translate to laying off 99.1 percent of all agents of the War on Marijuana, 99.1 percent fewer guns, helicopters, automobiles, flack jackets, etc. That’s a lot of money in government contracts.
Hemp is a plant that can naturally and sustainably provide many products presently available only from corporate giants like DuPont, International Paper, Texaco, BASF and the like. They could lose billions if hemp was grown in the United States for fiber, paper, fuel, and plastics. They have millions of dollars to back anti-hemp propaganda. They sponsor programs like D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America that equate hemp’s cousin marijuana with deadly drugs like heroin and methamphetamine to prevent Americans from learning the truth. The cannabis leaf has even become the poster child for the drug war. Corporate-backed programs such as D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America are teaching our children that this incredible Earth-friendly plant is as dangerous as heroin and methamphetamine. These corporations slander cannabis while promoting themselves as lovers and supporters of the environment. They run TV commercials that would have us believe that they are environmental activists with deceptive claims and scenes of pristine streams and forests. But what they really do is clear-cut pristine rainforests, poison our air with ozone-depleting greenhouse gases, and produce tons of toxic chemicals that end up in our drinking water.
excerpt from full article: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et0199s11.html
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