A biomaterials researcher and a First Nations community are teaming up in British Columbia to produce biodegradable packing foam using scrap wood from logging. The partnership aims to create a product that can break down much faster than Styrofoam, which is made from fossil fuels.
University of British Columbia biomaterials scientist Feng Jiang began developing a biofoam made from wood waste several years ago, after learning Styrofoam fills up roughly 30 per cent of landfills world-wide and can linger for up to 500 years.
“Our biofoam breaks down in the soil in a couple of weeks, requires little heat and few chemicals to make and can be used as substitute for packaging foams for things like TVs and even to insulate houses,” says Jiang.
About a year into his project, Jiang attended an event organized by the provincial Ministry of Forests, where he met Reg Ogen, president and CEO of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s Yinka Dene Economic Development Limited Partnership. The meeting gave rise to a partnership in which intellectual property rights to the biofoam are now shared between the university and the First Nation.
The foam’s source material comes from logging staging areas on Wet’suwet’en land near remote Burns Lake, BC. When loggers fell trees, they drag them to a staging area where they finish them into rough logs that trucks can then take to mills. But these areas quickly fill up with leftover branches, twigs and sawdust that can represent up to 50 per cent of the tree, says Ogen. That scrap can become a fire hazard, especially now that climate change has led to hotter, drier summers in the province.
Like Jiang, Ogen hopes his community can help keep Styrofoam out of landfills. “I take my recycling up to Penticton and there are mounds and mounds of Styrofoam from TVs, fridges and stoves,” he says. “These particles get into the water and get into the fish, the lakes and the seas. We are destroying the planet.”
The pair hope to build a biofoam pilot plant on First Nations land in the Lower Mainland later this year so that it is easily accessible to investors who will need to see it in action. But they would like to see a larger full production plant built on Wet’suwet’en territory so that community members can be trained to manufacture and market the material, creating steady, well-paying jobs.
“I believe in this product,” says Ogen. “And I really value the relationship we’ve developed with UBC. There’s an opportunity for other Indigenous groups and universities to do the same.”
As with other wood-based biofoams, Jiang’s creation is made by grinding wood into fibre to create a slurry, then adding foaming agents to inject air into the mixture. The final step involves poring it into a mold and drying it in an oven at 80 C. Jiang’s lab is currently experimenting with different chemical foaming agents to achieve the desired density.
While others have produced wood-based biofoams, they are not as widely available as Styrofoam. Part of the issue is that Styrofoam has been around for a long time and its manufacture and marketing is established.
“For developing new materials like the foam, huge investment is needed to build the supply chain and facilities,” says Feng, who would like to see more regulations around using petroleum-based foam and more incentives for biofoams.