Paul Stamets, known for his work in mycology (the study of fungi) and for his donations of mushrooms to help clean the oil-soaked hair mats from the San Francisco Bay spill in 2007, has come up with another genius eco-friendly invention.
Have you ever wondered how many trees are cut down in order to make those cardboard shipping boxes that just end up in the trash? What if those boxes could give back to the Earth and sprout new trees? Well, that's exactly what Stamets had in mind when he created the Life Box™.
The Life Box™ contains spores and seeds inside of packaging materials made of recycled paper fiber that can then be planted directly into the ground. After that it simply needs to be watered. They can be ordered from the Life Box™ website in many forms including DVD/CD mailers, pizza and shoe boxes, and beverage sleeves.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.