Arduino Makes Moves Towards PLA-Flax "Bio-Board" PCBs, Promises Beta Boards Next Year

Arduino is working on making its popular development boards more eco-friendly, investigating the potential to switching towards a bio-based PCB substrate — as part of a European project dubbed Desire4EU.

"Arduino is committed to making sustainability an ongoing priority through concrete projects and global collaborations every day of the year," the company claims of its environmental credentials. "One of the most exciting steps in that direction is our work on bio-based printed circuit boards (PCBs) — announced by co-founder David Cuartielles during this year's Arduino Days. It's an effort to fundamentally rethink how electronics are made, used, and eventually disposed of."

Arduino isn't alone in being concerned about the impact of electronics on the environment, nor about the growing e-waste problem the world is facing. Accordingly, it's joined the Desire4EU project — alongside a range of European researchers and engineers — and is working on building bio-boards: PCBs built from more environmentally-friendly substrate.

"The first working prototypes have already been manufactured using a new flame-retardant composite made from PLA-flax," the company says of its progress on the project, "instead of traditional fiberglass and epoxy. And yes, it actually works: the team has already successfully replicated Arduino Nano and UNO boards using this new bio-based substrate. Assembly with the new material is still compatible with standard surface mounted technology (SMT), meaning no expensive new infrastructure is needed. Also, the new boards use optimized layouts to improve yield and reliability – even with double-sided designs and through-hole vias."

There are other advantages, too, with the new boards being both biocompatible and biodegradable — and while they need their solder to be flowed at lower temperatures to prevent board damage, Arduino spins that as a positive too with the promise of reduced energy consumption during manufacturing.

While Arduino isn't quite ready to move manufacturing over to its bio-boards just yet, it is preparing to give away samples: "As part of the Desire4EU project," the company says, "we'll be giving away 1,000 beta boards starting in April 2026 – built on this new sustainable substrate and featuring an open-source design with LoRa wireless connectivity."

More information is available on the Desire4EU website, while a paper detailing the PLA/flax substrate has been published to the journal Nanotechnology under open-access terms.

Main article image courtesy of Desire4EU.