Eastern BioPlastics

Eastern BioPlastics is a company that uses chicken feathers to reduce the amount of plastic used to produce certain products. The president is Sunny Myerhan. First they pick all of the heads and other body parts out of the feathers, then they wash the feathers to get all of the blood off of them because if the blood and other bio-solids are not removed the feathers start decomposing very quickly. The feathers are then dried to less than 1-2%. The quill is the hardest part to cut up and grind. Each feather is washed for 15 minutes. The company is bio based but not compostable. On half days they go through 2,000 - 2,500 lbs. of feathers. The pelleted products have more feathers per 100 weight than the flake products. Feathers don't burn so it is better to have building products that termites don't eat. The extruder melts incoming plastic and adds in additives and feathers. The flakes are similar to oil dry (absorbent pellets). They are good for oil spills in water because the feathers are lighter than water and oil is on the top of the water. Having too much moisture in the feathers before they are processed pockets of steam will be created. Once the feathers are pelletized they are cooled off as quickly as possible with water, the pellets are then dried off as soon as possible to at least 5% moisture or less. All of the water is recycled and reused. They can make 4,000 lbs of plastic pellets in one hour. They make pads from feathers alone after they are cleaned and they are used to soak up oil. Pads are cleaned and reused (reclaimed), the pellets are not. They do not want the oil absorbent to be biodegradable because the oil will leak back into the soil if placed in a land fill. The company is selling to large businesses and to the port right now but hope to market their products once they get a larger variety of products. The products have been tested in local shops though. They have 5 patents on their products.