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These day even niche industries have concerned person looking for more eco - well-disposed option for materials and processes , fromwashing car wastetoartificial fleece . Lingroveis taking on laminate — slender stratum of wood and other materials — with a carbon - negative option that they claim performs well while looking as good .
Laminates or veneers are unwashed in every base and car : they ’re the slender ornamental wood or what have you that ride on top of the wrought or printed soundbox of a dashboard , gizmo or even nursing home trim . It ’s omnipresent and , regrettably , not always sustainably sourced or manufactured .
Lingrove has developed a forest veneer alternative out of flax fibre and plant - free-base resins that ’s carbon - negative yet results in a material they say is “ very mellow stiffness , perdurable , and insubordinate , ” i.e. to touch , temperature and other material ( like burnt umber ) . They call it “ ekoa ” — yes , in minuscule — and hope to make inroad in car and other national surfaces with a new $ 10 million financial backing rung .
The Series B round was led by Lewis & Clark Agrifood and Diamond Edge Ventures , with engagement from Bunge Ventures and SOSV .
The company contends that not only is its material in effect for the environs and as right or in effect in terms of strength and so on , but that it can positively affect air quality indoors . recycle plastic and other repurposed materials are a pop use for things like cabinetry and bring down , but they often lack the feel , ruggedness or other qualities desirable for such surfaces , and in some cases can offgas considerable amount ( that ’s your “ new car feeling ” ) .
“ We have a healthy - air , depressed - carbon , high - do and beautiful Cartesian product , ” said CEO Joe Luttwak . “ Using post industrial feedstock can , in some cases , be plus for the surroundings ; however many of those byproducts are still utter VOCs [ volatile organic compounds ] which are detrimental for indoor air caliber , and they are not capable to be made into high - performing materials . ”
ekoa textile do well , do n’t ooze eldritch gases into your kitchen or car ’s cabin and look a draw like regular woods . It can be pick off to have various spectre or opacities , and loosely has all the reward that artificial laminate have while being carbon negative and can be ground up and recycle when retired .
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You may wonder , as I did , why not use actual wood — thing like sawdust and Natalie Wood chips already coming out of industrial Sir Henry Wood - handling processes ? These , Luttwak said , are perfectly upright structural materials — i.e. what ’s in the midriff of a board — but are not decorative . There ’s a reason MDF boards and the like tend to have at least one side cover by a veneer : the interior wood - glue mix is n’t attractive or specially resistant to things like solvents and oils .
facing are n’t precisely the most high - visibility or exciting clientele to take on , but it ’s always encouraging to see innovation learn place in nook of manufacture where a smart choice can surmount to gazillion of products and make them at least a tad less wasteful .
The new investment should aid take the inauguration from minuscule - scale in - home manufacture to fulfill all their preorders and inflate into the automotive man .
