Invasive to Invaluable: Lantana as a Promising Raw Material
CSEI has successfully prototyped lantana-based biocomposite products used in construction
Lantana is a dangerous weed taking over India’s forests. Through the Lantana Crafts Centre set up in 2003, ATREE has been working towards removing the plant, generating livelihoods for tribal communities and restoring native forest species. However, lantana craft uses up only 20% of the plant. To remove lantana at scale, we need to go beyond lantana craft.
CSEI, a new centre at ATREE, is exploring innovative ways to use the whole weed to generate wealth. Here, we sum up some of the biocomposite products we have successfully prototyped with support from Social Venture Partners and Swissnex’s ‘Knowledge2Action’ grant. These options will help deweed forests much faster and also promote energy-efficient construction materials.
Particleboard is an engineered wood product manufactured by binding wood chips using a synthetic resin. CSEI, in collaboration with the Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI), has developed the technology to make particle boards from lantana chips.
Gypsum boards are an indoor building material that is used as drywalls or plasterboards, partitions or to line walls, ceilings and floors. It is strong, lightweight, low-cost, easy to install, absorbs sound, protects against fire and is energy efficient as it acts as a thermal insulator.
Crete is a composite building material made up of wood waste, paper, lime and water. It is a lightweight, cheaper commodity that makes use of sawdust and wood chips. Early studies indicate that lantana crete can be used as thermal insulating material in construction and as panelling for interior design.
Biobricks, made of agricultural waste, is a new and promising product that can pave the way for more cost-effective and green constructions. We have successfully prototyped biobricks made out of lantana. As an alternative to clay bricks, it has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of India’s construction industry.
Wood Plastic Composites (WPCs) are materials created by combining ground wood fibre/wood flour with heated thermoplastic resins. They can be used for outdoor furniture, cladding, door/window frames, landscaping etc. Along with the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), CSEI has successfully prototyped lantana-based WPCs.
Our 2030 goal is to create livelihoods for 10,000 people through the removal of invasive species from 500,000 hectares of forestland.
Working with this goal in mind, our restoration-based livelihood generation model looks at how to conserve forests and improve quality of life at scale.
The livelihood-based lantana model, which roped in local communities to remove lantana, faced various challenges.
- Steady supply of lantana: Removing lantana from the forest requires permissions from the forest department which are hard to come by.
- Artisans for lantana craft: For the local communities, lantana craft is only one of their gigs. Read more about organising the gig workers of India and building a viable enterprise with them.
- Order-supply mismatch: Since artisans are not readily available when lantana orders come in, it is difficult to complete orders on time. Read more on connecting lantana crafts to the furniture market.
We found that a focus on restoration is more likely to help us achieve scale. This approach could also provide livelihoods to the local forest-dependent communities.
Read | The Hindu Business Line: Gasifying lantana, an invasive weed, has positive spin-offs
Once the parts of the lantana plant that are fit enough to make furniture are identified, we could turn the rest into wood chips to be used for biocomposite construction material. Now that our prototyping phase has been successful, we plan to meet with the construction industry and showcase our results. The next significant challenge will present itself once the industry validates our prototypes.
To understand the possible applications of lantana, they are going to need a steady supply of raw material. By ‘they’, we don’t mean the construction industry alone, which is on the lookout for local, affordable and sustainable raw materials that can replace more energy-intensive options. The wood processing industry too is grappling with fluctuating raw material prices, an unstructured supply chain and depleting natural wood-based raw materials leading to rising costs.
Working with lantana mining sites that tap into the large-scale availability of the weed would address these issues and meet the demand for a product like lantana, while simultaneously restoring the land.
This is a win-win-win opportunity for the government, for the construction industry and for the environment. A restoration-based approach will provide more jobs, more revenue, revive native forests, reduce carbon emissions and help sequester carbon. It will further India’s 2070 goal to achieve net zero GHG emissions. The next step is to build a supply chain for lantana to remove, use and exhaust lantana to avoid unintended consequences of it becoming a resource. As per the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, clearing of forest land will require the government to permit large-scale Lantana removal. A policy decision by the government will open up a whole new chapter for the construction industry.
Once the provision for procuring the raw material is made, we could train artisans to prepare the lantana weed as per the requirements of the industry and get started on building a minimum viable product.
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We would love to hear from you. To collaborate with us, write to csei.collab@atree.org.
