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Article: FEATHERED CARS.(chicken feathers - recycling)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Environment
- Article date:
- June 1, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Images abound of chickens running around with their heads cut off, but few ever consider what happens to the four billion pounds of chicken feathers produced annually in the United States. Currently, these feathers end up as low-grade animal feed that farmers make by mixing the feathers with water in a large pressure cooker--an inefficient and nonprofitable practice. About 10 years ago, U.S. poultry farmers asked researchers to find a more lucrative way to dispose of this material. Walter Schmidt, a chemist at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, Maryland, came up with an ingenious solution--to recycle feathers into plastic and paper products. Using this ...