An Abu Dhabi-based company Desert Board says it has found a way to use waste from date palm trees to create a construction material named Palm Strand Board.
The United Arab Emirates has an estimated 40 million date palms and when date palm fronds are pruned off they become a problem, according to the director of Desert Board. “When you discard them, they take decades to decompose, taking up huge land space and releasing methane into the atmosphere. If they’re not dumped they’re burned, which releases CO2″.
Palm Strand Board can replace plywood in furniture, flooring, walls, doors and shelves. Palm Strand Board is recyclable and just as durable as regular board; it is “fire, termite and moisture resistant,” and unlike much plywood, contains no formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
Desert Board now sells it within the UAE and to other countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and India. The company produces enough PSB to cover two-and-a-half football fields a day, and because it is made from palm trees, which captured carbon dioxide while they were alive, every ton of PSB used is equivalent to capturing 400 kilograms of carbon.
You can read the original article at ktvz.com
An ingenious use of material!