While a thin carbon fiber helmet and a bulkier natural fiber helmet may have the same level of safety, one will end up in a landfill, while the other could decompose naturally.<\/p>\n
Mogas-Soldevila said it\u2019s inevitable that the future of buildings will be made from refurbished waste products in part because of what\u2019s known as \u201cend of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe end of life is very problematic,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot separate concrete from rebar at the end of life. Here our rebar is fiber. And that\u2019s why we can get bending. That\u2019s how we can make a beam out of shrimp and straw. Because we have a straw that\u2019s very good at bending and we have shrimp shells that are very good at binding the straw to itself. So now we have a bending compressive material, which is what concrete and rebar does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, experiments like these are in the very early stages. Manufacturers will only invest in these types of biodegradable materials if they have to pay for the disposal of their own waste, said Michael Grant, director of communications at Penn\u2019s Weitzman School of Design.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, developers will be held accountable for life cycles, for [their] waste,\u201d Grant said. \u201cBut until there is financial liability for waste, there will never be enough incentive to invest sufficiently in biomaterials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant said he\u2019s confident that day will come.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will happen as landfills fill and cities can no longer afford to burn waste,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The question is: Can these products be scaled up?<\/p>\n
Mears said she sees a future in agricultural waste, things like straw, because it\u2019s so prevalent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where some of this really interesting building product development is happening, using that kind of material,\u201d Mears said. \u201cYou can start to see scale there and adoption in the use of products that are made from those kinds of what we might have called waste products, but now are resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mears says right now, there are many academic labs working on similar products, but they are also in initial phases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some places are starting to think about how they scale up, even if it\u2019s at a residential kind of scale, which is very small scale, but that is the hope,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat future is coming,\u201d Mogas-Soldevila said. \u201cWe already have straw bale housing that has been brought into the modern era. We are all looking at Danish algae roofs and how we can modernize them. So, it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n