DailyDirt: Biodegradable Materials Are Good For... Cars?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Lots of folks are working on projects to make car parts out of biodegradable materials. Growing car parts sounds like a cool idea, but there are still some bugs to be worked out (sometimes literally). Here are just a few examples of green materials that might make it into cars someday. By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
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Filed Under: biodegradable, cars, plastic


Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    AG Wright (profile), 3 Jun 2011 @ 6:07pm

    dandelions

    If you think they make a nice salad you've never tried them. Blech bitter.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Pixelation, 3 Jun 2011 @ 6:21pm

    "Biodegradable car parts could be made with natural fiber composite materials"

    Hopefully it will improve the flavor as well.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Ed C., 3 Jun 2011 @ 7:42pm

    Dandelion car

    You mean like this one?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Michael Ho (profile), 4 Jun 2011 @ 1:03pm

    Re: dandelions

    heh. well a "nice" salad is in the eye of the beholder....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    madis_l, 6 Jun 2011 @ 12:04am

    Bad Idea

    I have a car with Biodegradable plastic parts:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ-21
    It is all-most impossible to get good preserved white/yellow steering wheel or any other white plastic part for this car.
    So I am not happy at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Darryl, 6 Jun 2011 @ 3:28am

    why the /sarc about tech ?

    most car parts are allready biodegradable, the only thing that have a very long degrade time is the plastics.

    Rubber degrades very quickly (rubber comes from trees remember), and steal degrades (rusts).

    you also do not need petrolium products to make plastics and nylone, you just need carbon, its just the cheapest source of carbon is from oil.

    Lots of things produce carbon apart from oil, as you said feathers, trees, grass.

    the only reason things are created that do not biodegrade is because it's cheaper to make.

    so what you buy a car now do you worry that your tyres are going to 'biodegrade" before 100,000mls ?

    All you have to do is make the manufacturer of the product (in this case the car) responsible for any product that they produce for the life of that product.

    So all the parts that are not biodegradable, have to be sent back to the manufacturer, and they are not allowed to 'throw away' those item, but they HAVE to recycle it.

    And alot of companies are doing just that these days.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Mike42 (profile), 6 Jun 2011 @ 9:44am

    Genius!

    Ah, yes, this is exactly the philosophy which caused people's cars to be disabled by rabbits.
    http://www.wacktrap.com/travel/air-travel/under-hood-winked-denver-airport-parking-rabbits -eat-car-wiring

    link to this | view in thread ]


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