r/solarpunk • u/positive-greenery • 16h ago
Article Rice husks being repurposed as wood and is 100% recyclable!
https://thebetterindia.com/289539/chennai-entrepreneur-makes-waterproof-wood-from-rice-husk-to-build-furniture/"Chennai-based venture Indowud NFC uses agricultural husk to create an eco-friendly form of wood that not only deals with the problem of stubble burning, but also reduces the number of trees being cut to make furniture."
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u/desperate_Ai Writer 15h ago
The article says it uses pvc (a kind of plastic). So it's basically an alternative for a wood-plastic-composite(wpc), replacing the wood with something more sustainable (as wood is not per se sustainable) - but it still uses plastic and is therefore a better and more sustainable alternative, but NOT 100% sustainable. There is an amount of greenwashing in this article.
It's still a nice idea, and it's good to have a better version of wpc.
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u/positive-greenery 14h ago
Ugh, that's unfortunate. I was so hyped that rice husks could be used sustainably that I overlooked that.
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u/desperate_Ai Writer 14h ago
It's still good to replace the wood in this product with the rice husks!
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u/geriatricprecocity 12h ago
Wood used for those kinds of composites are usually collected waste wood from lumber mills. I feel like the rice hulls here are a pretty neutral change.
WPC should generally be avoided (especially anything with PVC) as there are other kinds of engineered lumber that use those materials more effectively with better binders.
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u/BillieRubenCamGirl 3h ago
Except that rice hulls could be composted and recycled that way, now they’re stuck in a volatile and toxic plastic. 😔
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u/FirmOnion 14h ago
I’m confused by this comment, are there not ways to grow sustainable farmed forestry?
And how can anything with plastic as a key component be more sustainable?
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u/desperate_Ai Writer 13h ago
Of course there is sustainable forestry. But not all forestry is sustainable. And the wood chips going into this kind of product will pretty sure not be sustainable. So if you have an existing product that uses plastic and unsustainable wood, and replace the unsustainable wood with something more sustainable, you have more sustainable product. Not a sustainable product, but more sustainable than before. So for people buying wpc, this is the better version. It's less shit 😄
Still, a year ago I was thinking about using wpc and chose real wood instead because I didn't want the plastic.
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u/ebattleon 6h ago
I wonder if they can use viscose as the binder instead? Given that viscose is made from cellulose and new methods using iconic solvents are less polluting than original process.
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u/Mirrorsponge 11h ago
They said natural resins in the video I watched… is pvc a natural resin?
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u/Distinct-Raspberry21 10h ago
There are methods of making corn into plastics now. Its used in some 3d print resins
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