Recently, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) suggested a replacement for petrochemical-based plastics: rice resin. This material is made by a Japanese firm from inedible Rice. They also make a biodegradable Polymer called Neoryza that appears to contain some rice. The rice resin is made from 10 to 70% of rice waste. Below is a video that has English subtitles.
The video shows that there is a lot of rice waste. The resulting resin isn’t as toxic as petrochemical-based plastics and doesn’t consume food crops like other plant-based polymers. The rice resin is extruded as a normal polymer. It should therefore work just like any other thermoplastic.
According to the video, it has properties similar to petrochemical based plastics. It doesn’t require any special equipment to use. They also claim that production is easier because, unlike other bioplastics, they don’t generate ethanol as the first part of the process. Since it is almost all trash, waste rice should be easy to find. We aren’t sure what polymers are used in the 90 to 30% of the plastic that isn’t rice, but presumably, that is being brought in as a raw material.
We’ll be interested to see if anyone tries to make 3D printing filament from the stuff. We are aware that this material is being used in furniture replacement. We couldn’t help but think about using waste coffee grounds in 3D printing. If you want to compare this to PLA, we’ve talked quite a bit about the corny polymer.
