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Comment by hnbad | Hacker News Reader

Given the incredible number of chickens that are processed every single minute across the world, this shouldn't be surprising but it's easy to see why you might be surprised if you never considered where all the stuff that isn't meat goes.

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I found it pretty surprising. It would not have surprised me at all if we made fake plastic feathers and burned or buried even more real ones because it works out fractionally 'cheaper' to make new then collect and wash/treat the old.

Honestly, I’d still be surprised to learn feathers in America are produced from American poultry. Far more likely the local ones get burned and everything for sale is shipped across the ocean because cheaper.

Feathers? Not a chance. Far too much volume per unit weight. And if they're compressed, you end up with only broken feathers.

"What costs more to ship, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?"

Ahhh, Limmy. Just don't ask about purple burglar alarms.

Or they don't get burned but they do get shipped across the ocean to be processed, and then shipped back… that's the commercial way

Feather meal is used in animal feed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather_meal

Manure is also fed to cows.

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g2077

"Poultry litter can be used as a feedstuff... There are currently no federal or Missouri regulations governing the use of poultry litter as a feedstuff"

Sometimes EU regulations isn't that bad.

Poultry litter has been banned as cattle feed since 2001, partially due to mouth and foot disease and BSE and to some extent animal welfare.

It’s also because real feathers are similarly durable as plastic feathers would be. Plants are very cheap to grow as well, but plastic plants are nevertheless a thing.

Plastic plants sell because they are free of maintenance, they don't wither and die, not because they are cheap to produce.

Yes, they sell for the aesthetic. I have real plants but some friends have fake ones and honestly at a distance without scrutiny they look just as good. Hell, certain real plants look and feel plasticky themselves due to how they're composed, especially vinous plants.

Exactly, that’s what I meant by durable. And cheap was referring to growing natural plants.

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