In a basement here, and in a garage in Lincoln, two brothers are taking small steps to rid the planet of a glut of plastic refuse.
Andrew Bader, and his younger brother, Steve, make sunglasses and other products out of plastics infused with hemp fibers using high-tech 3D printers and an injection molding machine.
They say using a plant-based and biodegradable form of plastic in their Hemp3D business is as much about improving the environment as it is making a cool, marketable product that could provide full-time jobs for two farm boys looking for an alternative to growing corn and soybeans.
“The world is saturated with oil-based plastics. If we can get something that degrades faster in wider use, our world might be greener and our future a lot brighter,” said Andrew Bader, 26.