Dandelions Discovery Leads to Sustainable Rubber Production

Who wasn't shocked when they first found out that rubber came from trees?

Maybe I stand alone, but with all the comparable synthetics out there - plastic, glue, styrofoam - I was once certain that there was no way nature had created rubber all on its own.

Well, I was wrong. And if I was amazed then, I stand to be amazed again. Recent findings have deemed dandelions as a new, more sustainable source of rubber.

Because scientists haven't been able to come up with a synthetic alternative for rubber in the past 1,000 years, rubber production is indeed natural, but it's very, very inefficient. Since the discovery, Ohio researchers have secured a $3 million grant to design and build a processing plant to convert dandelions sap into sweet, sustainable rubber.

The details of dandelion farming are still in the works, and the next few years will be devoted primarily to research, but that doesn't mean this discovery has gone unnoticed. If all goes according to plan, Ohio's processing plant will be producing 20 million tons of rubber annually, and 60 million tons annually by 2015.

Needless to say, potential purchasers are already taking note.

^{Photograph © Chase Jarvis / Getty Images}