DESIGN OF WOOL-GEOPOLYMER POTS

Disposal of wool waste still encounters significant problems due to the need to satisfy environmental legislation and to the increasing cost of landfilling. Conversely, given the high content of useful nutrients it contains, sheep wool waste could still have a great potential for many applications, such as crop plant fertilizer and growth medium. The aim of this work was to highlight the possibility of reusing wool scraps as a constituent material for plant pots, producing innovative wool-geopolymer composite artifacts. Environmental-friendly pots for plant growing have been designed by impregnating chopped or hank wool scraps with a geopolymer resin. Composite pots were successfully realized. Preliminary comparative evaluations conduced on plant crops grown in peat or wool-geopolymer pots demonstrated that the presence of the organic material positively influenced the plant growth ratio. The composite pots were characterized both in term of macro- and micro-structure, before and after the plant growth testing. Wool fibers and geopolymer matrix acted together in providing a controlled release of nutrients to the plants and maintaining a higher and longer lasting level of soil moisture.