For the love of all things carbon

No Impact Man specifically made mention of his "non-carbon" bike going on a ride from NYC to DC. Does anyone have any sort of idea what all this carbon product and the making of them have on the "carbon footprint" of everyone? I'm not trying to be a dork, just wondering.

Carbon fibre is completely non-biodegradable, and also polluting in the manufacturing process. The particles/dust is carcinogenic (do not chop your own bars down) and this often escapes into water & air during production. I think carbon fibre products are also pretty demanding energy wise, but so is aluminium.

Steel is the most eco, definetely. Most steel is recycled, energy efficient to work with, non-toxic and biodegradable.

However people are working on carbon fibre-like composite materials using plant fibres and resin. These materials could revolutionise everything, making even cars compostable and increase performance greatly.