Las fibras vegetales: materiales ancestrales para un futuro sostenible en el desarrollo de productos

Abstract

Latin America is characterized by the biotic richness and biodiversity of its ecosystems that from pre-Hispanic times were the support of human settlements throughout the continent. This diversity favored the emergence of indigenous communities characterized by the territory, which provided them with what they needed for their sustenance and development. The vegetal fibers have been from those times a factor of identity and a reflection of material and immaterial cultural wealth. Ties, clothing, tools, backpacks and other objects of the indigenous ethnic groups and of the Latin American peasant culture are a reflection of knowledge. The invasion of polymers derived from petroleum relegated and threatened the continuity in the use of vegetable fibers. The plastic boots, the polypropylene ties, the mantles and the polyester fabrics put the vegetal fibers in the background for decades and caused the disappearance of ancestral knowledge manifested in utilitarian crafts. However, the threatening increase of global warming, the contamination of water resources with plastics and the enormous consequences in ecosystems due to our demand for oil and its derivatives, has led the world in the last decades to strengthen research and development in new materials and applications of vegetable fibers and by-products of agro-industry, to replace or minimize the use of plastics.

Now Latin America is one of the regions with the most bioprospecting potential in the use and exploitation of vegetable fibers, both because of the abundance and diversity it possesses and because of the knowledge and techniques that are linked to rural communities throughout the continent. However, it seems that we are lagging behind in the research around fibers and their potential in new materials and applications.

Which fibers are better in the development of composite materials? What are the advantages and environmental consequences of increasing their utilization? How does it benefit and / or affect the rural communities that produce these fibers? What are its physical and mechanical qualities? These are some of the many questions that we should ask from the investigation. And although there are several research processes in the academy in this regard, the review of indexed articles and academic publications seems to suggest that it is other regions such as Europe, North America and Asia that are taking the lead in the research, use and application of fibers in new materials and products, despite not having a biodiversity like the Latin American one. At the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá, from the School of Product Design we are focused on investigating the use of vegetable fibers and by-products of agro-industry for the development of new materials and applications. Design had a very important role in the mass use of plastics, now must be an active part in the search for alternative materials that enhance the sustainable use of resources and the strengthening of product developments for local economies. The vegetal fibers were in the past the cradle of local knowledge to solve the daily and rural needs, it is time that we return to this route. A group of researchers made up of undergraduate and postgraduate professors and students, in partnership with agricultural research institutions and fiber producing communities, are in search of developing new composite materials (ACM) biopolymers and local technological transformation systems, to encourage the use and application of local materials in the development of products capable of competing with those made of plastic materials, but with all the advantages implied by the use of biodegradable and sustainable materials. This article describes the route that we as researchers are traveling and invites peers from other latitudes to join us in this effort.