UBC researchers and the Wet’suwet’en First Nation have teamed up to engineer a sustainable Styrofoam alternative made from wood waste that they’re hoping will reduce the amount of plastics in the environment while giving the dregs of felled trees a second life.
The product is called DicinFoam (Dicin means “wood” in the Wet’suwet’en language). It’s a biodegradable, lightweight packing material made from raw wood waste that is ground down into powder-like plant fibers and mixed with water, air, and other plant-based ingredients before the foamy liquid is poured into molds to dry. The product is meant to replace the use of petroleum-based packaging such as Styrofoam and thermal insulation panels in the construction sector.
DicinFoam was invented by Jiang Feng, an associate professor and Tier II Canada Research Chair in sustainable functional biomaterials at UBC. Feng developed the material in partnership with Yinka Dene Economic Development Limited Partnership (YLP), the economic arm of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, who were calling for the more fulsome use of harvested trees in the region.
Across Indigenous cultures, it is believed all parts of the animal or plant should get used, says Joe Wong, the vice president of YLP. When trees are cut down, wood waste made up of tree tops, branches, foliage, and stumps, gets left behind. Typically, this waste, known as slash, is either intentionally burned, releasing greenhouse gas emissions; or left to dry out, creating a forest fire hazard. Repurposing these materials was half the impetus behind DicinFoam, says Wong. The other half was reducing the long-term impacts of our reliance on plastics.
“We were becoming more aware of microplastics and forever chemicals in our salmon ‘highways,’” he says. This includes rivers, creeks, and other bodies of water that serve as vital migratory routes for salmon returning upstream from the ocean to spawn. “As a society, we have become too dependent on fossil fuel-based products like plastic and [Styrofoam],” he adds.
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Each year, millions of tons of plastic foam packaging wind up in landfills, where it takes a minimum of 500 years to decompose. Much of this waste doesn’t make it to the landfill however, and breaks down into microplastics that contaminate the natural environment and sources of food and drinking water.
But the benefits go beyond the environmental. “We view this as a means to increase the number of Indigenous students attending post-secondary, especially in STEM programs, to integrate our Indigenous holistic perspectives into research, and to establish a sustainable business for the next seven generations,” says Wong. “Because we have 50 per cent of the IP and a 100 per cent Global Licensing Agreement, we can build a plant in Ontario or even Europe.”
As of now, DicinFoam is still in its pilot project phase, which includes producing 150 to 200 kilograms of wood foam per day at their pilot plant in Vancouver for potential customers to test out the product’s performance. But Wong says the next step is working towards commercial trials and expanding into a larger facility in Burns Lake, and later, a 15,000-tonne facility on Vancouver Island.
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