"The impressive thing is that they've been able to take material that would end up in a land fill and convert it into a plastic," said textile engineer Brian George at Philadelphia University.
Chicken processing plants generate nearly 2.5 billion pounds of feathers each year, some of which get ground up and fed back to the birds or hauled away as garbage.
With concerns rising about diseases that could arise from feeding animal parts to animals, researchers are looking for alternative uses for the waste.
The abundance of chicken feathers could also reduce manufacturers' reliance on petroleum-based products such as polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene, which rise in cost along with the price of fuel.
The new processing technique takes advantage of the main ingredient of chicken feathers: the protein keratin.
By rearranging the protein's molecular structure, Barone was able to create a material that can be molded into any length or diameter of fiber and into any form of plastic or film.
The material is also strong, lightweight, and biodegradable.
