Ohio, USA - In June 2010 Ohio became the first state in the USA to require state agencies and state-supported colleges and universities to buy biobased products. Under Ohio's biobased product preference program, state agencies and institutions of higher learning are obligated to purchase products with the highest percentage of biobased content as determined by the biobased Carbon 14 test method, ASTM D6866.

The obligation to buy biobased may be avoided if it is not readily available, it does not meet performance standards, and if its price is unreasonable.

How ASTM D6866 Measures Biobased Content?

ASTM D6866 measures the percentage of a product that comes from a renewable source by measuring its Carbon-14, which is only present in living and recently expired matter from renewable sources. Fossil materials have no Carbon-14 in them. Thus, it is easy to correlate a material's carbon-14 and biobased content.

A product wholly made from plants has a biobased content of 100%, while a product from fossil inputs has a biobased content of 0%. A mixed product has a biobased content in between.

In Europe, biobased content is covered by the European standard CEN 15747. Discussions are at an advanced stage on biobased products. In 2009 and 2010 Salvo has been active in trying to dissuade the EU from including biobased items which can be reused, such as reclaimed timber beams and flooring, from being included in the biobased fuels programmes, such as 'energy from waste' schemes or EfW as they are now known.

Note: In the UK in 1997 the amount of timber reclaimed for reuse by the salvage sector was around 700,000 tonnes. However, under pressure, initially from the MDF and panel board industry which was paid to swap from using new wood to recycling old wood, and later from the EfW sector burning old wood, the amount reclaimed dropped to around 350,000 tonnes by 2007. Part of the reason for this drop was the rise in the availability of new wood (some of which is now sold by salvage dealers themselves) coupled with the ease with which new laminate flooring can be laid compared to reclaimed. Some reclaimed timber dealers say that it is also more difficult to source reclaimed timber from demolition sites, although some demolition contractors saying that they cannot find dealers to buy their demolition wood.

Betalab: Ohio enacts law for biobased products

Story Type:  News

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