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Ryegrass straw sheets are a tree-free alternative to wood. (courtesy Meadowood Industries) |
| "Quality material is a secret," Opel says. "You have to get the
straw right behind the harvest." by Craig Kellogg At the one-man factory Leonard Opel operates in Oregon's Willamette Valley, $20 buys a piece of Meadowood. The four-foot by eight-foot ryegrass straw sheets, which cost the same as plywood, are a tree-free alternative to wood (and last year were added to the archive at the Material Connexion, a Manhattan materials library). Opel, who can produce 50 panels a day, estimates that over the years he has manufactured 10,000 sheets for use as interior paneling, furniture, cabinets, and bulletin boards. Twenty years ago, however, enthusiasm for the product was limited. "People told us we couldn't do it, that we were farmers and not engineers," Opel says. He and his development partner, Dale Rose, discovered straw boards made by researchers at Oregon State University in the 1970s and tinkered with the process, until they found an adhesive manufacturer to create a resin that would not emit formaldehyde or urea gas. In 1977, they settled on a formula of chopped ryegrass straw, a by-product of the lawn seed that farmers plant on 360,000 acres in the valley, which once would have been burned in the fields. "Quality material is the secret," Opel says. "You have to get the straw right behind the harvest." He then chops it into pieces that are dried and cleaned. After adding the resin, he presses it into panels or three-dimensional shapes. Because the process also works with rice and wheat straw, Opel may soon open a facility in California's Central Valley (where rice farmers are now required to phase out the burning of their fields). The factory in Oregon, however, remains modest. Originally, Rose and Opel invested $70,000 in a building and used equipment. Although a $500,000 plywood press would allow Opel to make thicker panels, he seems content with his current setup. "It's just like when a pair of pants don't fit," he says philosophically. "You've either got to shrink them--or get fatter." |
Keywords:
Meadowood, Oregon, Leonard Opel
