Waste Management: How to tackle the poultry industry
When looking at environmental conservation and sustainability, its not always the major issues that need to be reconsidered. There are processes in everyday life, certain mechanisms we take for granted, that, if reevaluated, could make a huge difference in our fight for a sustainable future.
It's not all about the headline grabbing battles against oil tycoons, deforestation and mass pollution.
A difference can be made in almost every aspect of life, especially that of the business world. One such issue can be found in British meat production, specifically the poultry industry.
In 2016 poultry overtook red meat in popularity for the first time. Over 529 million kilograms of fresh poultry were consumed by Britons, compared to 511 million kilograms of red meat (per the Independent).
As these unfathomable figures rise, so too do the waste products that come from them.
Every week in the UK alone, we produce a thousand tonnes of feathers as a by-product from the industry. If you expand the perimeters to include Europe that figure starts reaching into the millions of tonnes per year. That's a baffling amount.
What happens to these millions of tonnes of feathers? How can the industry be sustainably managed with that amount of waste product?
Enter AEROPOWDER.
Co-founded by Elena Dieckmann and Ryan Robinson, the startup have been looking at how this waste is currently managed and what can be done to improve the system.
In a recent interview with Adam Woodhall, of Inspiring Sustainability, Ryan explained how the company formed, what their goals are and where they currently stand in terms of their vision. All quotes have been taken from this interview.
“They can’t really be disposed of in an easy manner, people are sending them abroad to be turned into low grade animal feed or there’s options of incineration but that’s not environmentally friendly. We’ve looked at this and said, ‘surely feathers can do something better’, and our solution has been to turn feathers into a sustainable insulation material.
“There are kind of two birds with one stone here, we are solving the problem of feather waste and synthetic insulation all in one go.”
Ryan and Elena unexpectedly happened to meet on the squash court, each avid players, their friendship built up around sport, but their business partnership was built on a mutual need to progress towards a more sustainable future.
Elena explained how she wanted to apply for the Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Award, a prize worth £20,000 to London’s top young green entrepreneur, and Ryan agreed to help. Together they managed to win and ended up having to form AEROPOWDER to claim the prize.
“The idea to use the waste feathers came from Elena. [That] was about two years ago now, and it’s kind of snowballed since then, moving from initial concepts, refining the idea, talking to people and just getting to where we are today.”
Currently the majority of these waste feathers are being cooked down into a protein powder that’s used as low-grade animal feed. Even though the product is being used, it forms a poor source of protein, has low nutritional value and low economic value. It is simply an inefficient use of feathers and their biological properties.
Due to laws relating to feeding animals back to animals, put in place after mad cow disease, the powder can’t even be used in the UK or the EU. This leads to further environmental hits in the form of shipping, mainly to East Africa where it can be used.
“There are different types of feathers and they’re all slightly different in their structure and composition but ultimately, they’re made of keratin, a hollow fibre, it’s very lightweight. Feathers are able to trap air, this means they’re thermally insulating and we harness those properties to create a useful product.”
Ryan describes himself as a rational thinker and is particularly interested biomimicry and its uses in various similar sustainable projects. Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. Listen below to Ryan’s explanation of biomimicry and AEROPOWDER’s approach to nature inspired design.
Originally they had been looking into construction and how they would be able to supply construction companies with feather based insulation as opposed to their synthetic counter parts. However, after researching the industry, they decided to start with something more manageable, in a less conservative industry.
These issues led them onto deliveries.
The ease of deliveries rule our generations spending habits and while a lot of deliveries can be sent out in regular packaging, certain produce needs to be protected from changes in temperature. These are the delivery companies AEROPOWDER are looking to partner with.
“Deliveroo, and [others], are sending hot food out on the back of a motorcycle, what’s inside that box, why can’t it be even more sustainable material. And then you’ve also got things like the pharmaceutical industry, they need to be sending drugs, it’s called the Last Mile Delivery, and the whole thing needs to be kept cold for things like medicines to be useful and survive the journey.
“It’s quite tricky to get that last mile into the cold chain and protected, so that could be another potential application for our materials.”
Since deciding on the best use for their product, Elena and Ryan have been putting in the hard hours setting up collaborative links with various manufacturers and companies, getting everything ready for the day they can finally launch. As both are inexperienced in the world of entrepreneurship and there is a lot to be learnt, but Ryan is relishing the challenge.
“I came from a very scientific background, I actually think there’s a lot of parallels between a scientific approach and [the business world], you just need to frame the problem correctly in your head.
“You’ve got to have an open mind, you’ve got to be talking to a lot of people to get more information, you’ve got to think critically, test what you’re doing, interpret the results and the changes that need to be made.”
Ryan believes they are now only months away from launching their product, and is hoping to mark the occasion with a large unveiling. To keep up with this exciting project or if there’s anyone interested in using sustainable insulation, you can sign up to their mailing list at www.aeropowder.com, or follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
To hear the rest of Ryan's interview with Adam Woodhall you can visit the Inspiring Sustainability website, or find their podcast on Spotify.