可持续性的线索
啤酒花以增加啤酒的苦味、风味和香气而闻名.
啤酒花, 或锥, 是用在酿造过程中而剩下的植物, 或蔓, 经常被覆盖成堆肥吗. But, what if that hops waste could be used for something else — maybe something you’d want to wear? That’s the question University of Idaho 农学院 和 生命科学 student Maggie Zee is hoping to answer.
独一无二的机会
亚基马酋长牧场, an integrated crop management company specializing in breeding new hop varieties, 看到了大量的啤酒花废料，正在寻找除了堆肥之外的实际用途. A fortuitous meeting at the University of Idaho’s Career Fair in February 2019 resulted in a new partnership.
32岁的Zee在招聘会上碰巧经过了亚基马首席牧场的展位. 当代表们得知她主修服装时, 纺织品及设计, 他们给了她一个难得的机会.
“They have been trying to figure out how to use their hops waste at the end of harvest,Zee说。. “They want to find other practical uses for it so it’s not just sitting around 和 composting. They presented to me this idea to figure out what to do with this hops waste. 所以，我决定尝试一下.”
Zee联系 阿曼德麦当劳他是365滚球官网可再生材料化学教授 自然资源学院, 和, 用的是亚基马酋长牧场的啤酒花, 两人开始探索如何利用副产品.
“We’ve been trying to figure out the feasibility of hops bine as a textile material,Zee说。. “到目前为止，我们已经能够将其用作无纺布材料来造纸.”
Zee研究了其他韧皮纤维——很结实, cellulosic fibers obtained from the outer bark of plants like hemp — 和 how they were processed to make paper. The bine was put into a steamer basket with sodium hydroxide 和 boiled to see if the bark would rip off 和 reveal the fibers. 然后加入漂白剂来帮助进一步分解茎.
“从那里, 纤维很容易被扯开，这样我们就能把它们和漂亮的分开, 细韧皮纤维与粗秆纤维或茎,Zee说。.
She used a food processor to pulp the fibers 和 a paper press to sift through the pulp 和 form sheets. 然后用热压机把床单晒干.
“这张纸真的很结实，”Zee说. “我认为这只是啤酒花的特性, 只是通过纤维的特性, 它们有这种锯齿状的图案，而且非常结实.”
啤酒花废物转化为纤维
University of Idaho student Maggie Zee researches how to turn hops byproduct into a useable fiber for textiles.
纺织品来源
造纸只是这个项目的第一步. Now the team is investigating the use of the fibers as a textile source with help from U of I’s 理学院.
布莱恩小, 物理系的科学仪器制造师, fabricated a decortication machine that strips off the bark so that Zee can extract the fibers. The machine is based on similar designs used for extracting fibers from hemp plants.
“It’s something that we thought would be the best fit for our product 和 we can use it for other bast fibers if we wanted to research other things,Zee说。. “这似乎是最实用的机器.”
The hops bine is fed into the machine 和 paddles break off the bark 和 strip it so that only fibers remain. 从那里，Zee梳理纤维并将它们纺成纱线.
Zee和Ashley Hale一起工作, 亚基马牧场特别项目协调员, to source longer str和s of bine 和 hopes to create clothing items as part of her senior capstone project.
“为了我和我们的公司, 因为可持续性是一个非常重要的方面, 这个学生做了一些很酷的事情，我们想支持她,黑尔说. “I think using hop waste in an alternative way is a really cool project to get behind.
“如果她真的找到了把它变成纺织品的方法, I think our growers all the way to our brewing customers would really like something made with a certain percentage of hops waste. 我认为机会是无限的.”
亚基马酋长牧场 may use the hops paper as bottle labels, coasters or packaging.
“If more people can get on board with using their byproduct towards a renewable product, it seems like we’d be able to become more sustainable in our practices 和 have locally sourced materials to create endless amounts of things,Zee说。. “这是我的最终目标.”
1 of 5: After the hops have been dried, Zee soaks them in a water solution to soften.
2 of 5: Zee feeds the hops bine through the decortication machine to strip the bark, 暴露纤维.
3 / 5:去皮机剥树皮后, Zee梳理剩余的材料，进一步提取纤维.
4 / 5:梳头后，Zee的头发又短又粗.
5 of 5: Zee spins the hops fiber into a yarn at the ATD product development studio.
新职业
他偶然发现了服装。, 纺织品及设计 by chance after earning a bachelor’s degree in geology from SUNY Potsdam 和 spending nine years working in various seasonal fisheries 和 natural resources jobs.
“我厌倦了季节性, but I was also feeling very tired of doing the same thing over 和 over again 和 feeling like a cog in the wheel 和 not seeing the end result of the field work I was doing,”她说。. “I started playing around with different art forms 和 trying to get back in touch with my creative side.”
Zee was a ski 和 snowboard instructor at Brundage Mountain in McCall when inspiration hit — designing clothing for jobs 和 activities that she loved to do.
“我从来不认为自己是一个时髦的人，”她说. “我只是想寻找一些不同的东西. Another catalyst was that I had been working so many jobs outside in the field 和 never found any clothes that really fit. I came into this program trying to change that with better fitting clothes for women. 时尚不是我的最终目标，功能才是.”
Zee会见了Lori Wahl, 玛格丽特·里奇家庭与消费者科学学院讲师, 参观了莫斯科校区的设施之后, 决定转行.
“It’s hard making that decision when you’re already in debt from your first degree 和 going back for another bachelor’s degree,”她说。. “It was just something that I felt I needed to do because if not now, then I’d never do it.”
Zee’s research project has also led her to plans for her next career — a business creating women’s outdoor clothing that fits, 是功能性的，可能是由啤酒花制成的吗.
“If I am successful in making hops into a woven textile then I would like to be my own supplier for my own clothing company,”她说。. “很像垂直整合, I like the overarching holistic idea of creating a more sustainable fashion industry with the production of textiles from locally sourced fibers into a wearable garment.”
本文由 艾米Calabretta农业与生命科学学院
照片 乔Pallen，大学传播与市场营销
视频 卡拉比灵顿，大学传播与市场营销
2020年11月出版