86 Environmental Biotechnology
natural properties of the raw materials and the compression involved in their
fabrication. In a number of trials of these materials, principally in Austria, where
they originated, eco-walls have consistently been shown to provide significant
improvements in the quality of living and working conditions. In addition, con-
struction and demolition waste, consisting of concrete rubble, timber fragments,
brick shards and the like, poses a considerable disposal problem for the indus-
try, particularly with increasingly stringent environmental regulation and rising
storage and landfill costs. Though various recycling initiatives and professional
codes of practice have helped ease the situation, there is an obvious advan-
tage in a relatively inexpensive, lightweight and sustainable material which is
truly biodegradable. At present, the use of this technology has been limited to
small-scale demonstrations, though wider uptake is currently being promoted
through the European Union’s Innovation Relay Centre network. The appeal of
this, and other biological materials production methods for use in construction,
the automotive and aerospace industries is clear, but it is very early days in
their development. How successful they will ultimately prove to be remains to
be seen.
Closing Remarks
As this chapter has shown, pollution and its mitigation have major ramifications
in many diverse fields both for industry and in the wider sphere of general human
activities. The potential contributions of clean technologies discussed in the final
section have enormous bearing on the reduction of contaminationab initio, and,
clearly, avoiding a problem in the first place is far better than cleaning it up after
it has occurred. However, in most cases, current applications of environmental
biotechnology to treat pollutants and wastes far outnumber the practical examples
of clean biomanufacturing and so the rest of this book will address this more
common use.
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