Using invasive plants for a useful outcome

 

I'll post the link here to a way of using water hyacinths (an invasive aquatic plant, of course) both to remove nutrient pollution from waterways and to make biodegradable plastics. Previously, about the only thing they'd come up with to make them useful was to feed manatees.

(Nutrient pollution is the excess fertilizer that runs off agricultural fields, and which causes excessive algae growth. Better that the hyacinths use it than the algae, because too much algae leads to eutrophication.

Invasive Species Refined: Bioplastics from Water Hyacinths