Sure, mushrooms are great on a pizza, but how do they hold up when used as packaging material?
Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, founders of Ecovative Design in Green Island, NY, did their fair share of studying and testing out fungi (for scientific purposes, that is) as a natural and biodegradable binding agent. They found that mycelia (mushroom roots), when combined with agricultural waste like buckwheat, corn and oat hulls, make a strong material that can be used in place of Styrofoam.
The EcoCradle™ foam is not only biodegradable, it's also fire and waterproof and, unlike Styrofoam, it doesn't require the use of petroleum (a.k.a.: oil) to manufacture it. It's also as inexpensive as Styrofoam but uses far less resources to produce it.
Their website details the process:
"We actually grow EcoCradle™ using mycelium, a fungal network of threadlike cells. This mycelium grows around agricultural by-products like buckwheat husks, oat hulls, or cotton burrs to any shape we make. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium envelops the by-products, binding them into a strong and beautiful packaging part. Inside every cubic inch of EcoCradle™, there’s a matrix of 8 miles of tiny mycelial fibers! At the end of the process, we treat EcoCradle™ with heat to stop the growth so there will never be any spores."
The head of Ford Motor Company's plastic research department became interested in Ecovative's mushroom-based foam and is now looking to the company to help Ford replace 30 pounds of the petroleum-based foams used in their vehicles for automotive bumpers, side doors and dashboards.
Ecovative has been approached by numerous companies looking to "green" their products and packaging with this new eco-wonder material.
Read more about Ecovative and EcoCradle™ on their website and see this article on CNN Money to read more about the company.
Information and image via Inhabitat.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2011.