Feather Fiber: Could it be Recycled?

Brazil is known as the third producer of chicken meat and the feather fibers issued from this industry are a waste material. The world produces 4 billion tons per year of wasted chicken feathers and most of the time these are burned in landfills causing atmosphere and land pollutions. For these reasons, it is central to find new ideas of application using these chicken feathers and downs as fibers. Therefore, this paper is focused on the characterization processes of these fibers in terms of physical, mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties. Thanks to the observed properties, new ecofriendly applications of these waste materials will be proposed in order to develop the circular economy.