Fred Meier writes in USA Today:
Talk about a sustainable resource! Ford and Ohio St. researchers are working on dandelion roots as a potential source of rubber.
Talk about a sustainable resource! Ford and Ohio St. researchers are working on dandelion roots as a potential source of rubber.
Apparently the milky-white goo that seeps from dandelion roots can be used to make a rubber that Ford says could eventually be used in the plastics in cup holders, floor mats and interior trim.
Ford notes that this is just part of investment in sustainable materials including soy foam seat cushions and wheat straw-filled plastic for interior trim -- with the advantage that dandelion roots aren't a food crop (for most humans, anyway) and they grow like, well, a weed.