What happens when an industrys by-product turns out to be as valuable as its primary products?
The poultry industry may be about to find out. Scientists are exploring new methods for turning the industry’s excess fluff into products ranging from notepaper to auto body parts to high-quality animal feed, saving trees and replacing man-made materials in the process. The National Chicken Council, a Washington, DC-based poultry trade group, predicts that more than 8.5 billion chickens will be commercially grown and processed in the United States this year. These chickens, when processed, will leave behind more than 2.3 billion pounds of feathers. For the competitive poultry industry, the challenge is to turn the white plumes into valuable new products that add to the company’s bottom line. Though there has been significant controversy in recent years over the human health effects of poultry wastes, especially used litter and processing plant wastewater that ends up in waterways, chicken feathers are relatively clean and do not generally pose a health risk. Contamination of feathers w
