Biodegradable adhesive could replace plastic resin in manufacturing

The corn-based resin was developed as part of an awareness-raising artistic collaboration

Spotted: A team made up of artist Thijs Biersteker and employees from electric car brand Polestar has discovered a new, eco-friendly resin during a recent artistic collaboration. The interactive piece, called We Harvest Wind, was installed in The Netherlands’ Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as a means of encouraging people to think about their role in climate change.

Using recycled PET plastic to 3D print the wind turbine’s blades helped the design team consider all materials going into the artwork. Despite the environmental credentials of many products, there is a dearth of equally healthy glues and other connecting processes. As a way of avoiding the use of fossil fuel-based polypropylene resin, Biersteker and the Polestar team created a corn-based resin. The new glue is a composite of flax and polylactic acid and is fully biodegradable.

Part of the design and build process for We Harvest Wind included the use of a materials passport. Materials passports record every step in the process of creation, and list all of the ingredients and products used. Their purpose is to guide others in disassembling the piece for reuse, recycling, or compost as desired.

As part of the move towards truly sustainable materials, a number of projects are creating replacements for particularly damaging, and widely used, building materials. Two recently spotted by Springwise include a carbon neutral quartz that uses recycled water and renewable energy in its production, and a bio-concrete made from weeds and crayfish shells.