Ausrangierte Muschelschalen können von Mülldeponien umgeleitet werden – zum Sandstrahlen von Jeans. Tests haben gezeigt, dass die Schalenkörnung weniger spröde ist und daher weniger wahrscheinlich während des Strahlvorgangs bricht, was zu einer besseren Leistung führt und eine geringere Menge zum Sandstrahlen einer bestimmten Anzahl von Jeans erfordert.

>The tons of discarded mussel shells generated by the seafood industry may be organic, but they’re still very slow to biodegrade in landfills. They may soon find new life, however, sandblasting jeans in the textile industry.

>In order to get that funky, fashionable, „lived-in“ look and feel, denim jeans are typically subjected to a number of treatments on the factory floor. One of the most common of these treatments is sandblasting.

>In the past, plain old silica sand was widely used for this process.

>Due to its free silica content, however, it was causing high rates of deadly silicosis among workers. Although such sand still is used in some factories along with protective breathing apparatus (or without it, in less reputable factories), many locations have now switched to garnet sand, which contains virtually no free silica.

>Garnet sand also performs better than silica sand at sandblasting, but it’s significantly more expensive, plus it’s a non-renewable resource. With those and other limitations in mind, scientists from Spain’s University of the Basque Country looked to discarded mussel shells that would otherwise end up in landfills.

>The [researchers](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652625019535?via%3Dihub) devised a process in which the shells are washed, sterilized via a thermal treatment, ground in a mill, and then sifted. The resulting grit is shot onto denim at high pressure, using a conventional compressed-air sandblasting gun.

The textile industry is one of the dirtiest on the planet, and sandblasting has a horrific history of causing silicosis in workers. Using mussel shells not only diverts tons of aquaculture waste from landfills but likely offers a much safer organic alternative to silica-based sands.

I feel like the kind of people who buy sandblasted jeans are the same ones that come to Reddit and complain about jeans not lasting as long as they used to.

Why are mussel shells on the landfill in the first place? If they stem from the food industry they are a clean stream of product. They could go to their own biodegradable landfill which will degrade by itself. They could be dumped at sea where they came from. They could be used as animal feed. Why are mussel shells treated as a waste products?