{"id":27085,"date":"2023-02-09t19:47:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-09t19:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.planetforward.com\/2023\/02\/09\/unpacking-the-packaging-potential-of-mycelium-the-mushroom-roots-of-many-uses\/"},"modified":"2023-02-24t15:14:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24t15:14:41","slug":"packaging-mycelium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/packaging-mycelium\/","title":{"rendered":"unpacking the packaging potential of mycelium, the mushroom \u2018roots\u2019 of many uses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>as almost anyone who exchanged gifts over the holiday season can attest, buying, selling and shipping all of that&nbsp;<em>stuff<\/em>&nbsp;requires an awful lot of plastic packaging. perhaps you even have some of those cartons and cases and crinkly wrapping film still stashed around the house. unfortunately, even if placed in the recycling bin, most of that single-use plastic will end up in a landfill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>plastic waste is an ever-expanding problem, with approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthday.org\/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics\/#:~:text=around%20380%20million%20metric%20tons,the%20entire%20weight%20of%20humanity.\">380 million metric tons<\/a> of new plastic added to the world every year. but what if there was an alternative material that could replace petroleum-based plastics? there is one possibility: mycelium, the white, root-like structure that grows beneath mushrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>mycelium collects, stores&nbsp;and sends information to other plants and trees via its branching networks under the forest floor. it performs a network function, not unlike the internet, \u201can underground information highway that speeds up interactions between plants,\u201d said zhao qin, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at syracuse university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cmycelium consists of massive branching thread-like hyphae, which is stretched and split into substrates,\u201d mycologist ajay singh&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ijrpr.com\/uploads\/v3issue7\/ijrpr5656.pdf\">writes<\/a>&nbsp;in his paper, \u201cdevelopment of sustainable myco-material from fungi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/oyster_mushroom_(pleurotus_ostreatus)_mycelium_in_petri_dish_on_coffee_grounds.jpg\" alt=\"white, root-like mycelium grows on a dark petri dish of coffee grounds\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">mushroom mycelium growing in a petri dish on coffee grounds (<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/file:oyster_mushroom_(pleurotus_ostreatus)_mycelium_in_petri_dish_on_coffee_grounds.jpg\">tobi kellner<\/a>\/wikimedia commons\/cc by-sa 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>mycelium has a physical structure that gives it strength and durability that can replace single-use plastic packaging. that means it could be part of the solution to some of the world\u2019s most pressing problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the united states alone creates more than 35 million tons of plastic in a year, according to the environmental protection agency. only an estimated&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/the-us-recycled-just-5-percent-of-its-plastic-in-2021-180980052\/\">5%&nbsp;to 6% percent of plastic waste<\/a>&nbsp;in the united states is recycled; the rest is sent to landfills or incinerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>faced with a broken recycling system, some companies are making alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, creating products that are biodegradable or compostable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovative.com\/\">ecovative<\/a>&nbsp;tapped into the mycelium market\u2014or myco-material market\u2014over a decade ago. its core product is a replacement for single-use plastic such as styrofoam, commonly used in shipping and packaging products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cwe\u2019re growing full sheets of mushroom tissue, which end up being the mushroom packing,\u201d said ecovative chief marketing officer andy bass. \u201cthe mycelium packaging can be thrown in your garden and then decompose in 45 days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mycelium-cloud.png\" alt=\"two hands press into a sheet of fluffy white mycelium\" width=\"-110\" height=\"-57\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">fluffy mycelium. (courtesy of ecovative)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>mycelium grows and thrives on agricultural waste by-product such as wood chips or decaying tree branches, shrinking agriculture waste streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cecovative grows its mushroom on corn stalk, hemp hurd, and wood chips,\u201d bass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>like fungi on the forest floor, mycelium likes dark and damp growing conditions. humidity above 98% and temperatures between 24 and 25 degrees celsius (75 to 77 degrees fahrenheit) are ideal, says qin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>when mycelium grows on waste, the structure grows out and down. the hemp hurd substrate and mycelium are mixed in molds to form large sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in addition to tackling the compounding issues of plastic pollution and agriculture waste, ecovative is also using mycelium to make meat alternatives. mycelium-based meat is the latest myco-market the company hopes to capitalize on. \u201cwe just cut the ribbon on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90777511\/this-new-vertical-farm-is-growing-towering-racks-of-mycelium-for-fungi-based-bacon\">our largest farm to date<\/a>,\u201d bass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in this case, ecovative\u2019s \u201cgrowth chamber\u201d mimics this&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kekkila-bvb.com\/article\/futuristic-fungiculture-in-the-netherlands\/\">vertical mushroom farm<\/a>, growing \u201cin an aerial style,\u201d said lacey davidson, ecovative&#8217;s marketing director. ecovative declined to show videos of its growth chamber out of concerns for their intellectual property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cit looks like a dutch-style mushroom farm,\u201d davidson said. \u201cwe have reconfigured this model to grow mycelium instead of mushrooms. instead of mushrooms popping up it looks more like one giant interconnected fluffy marshmallow growing a few inches above its feedstock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mycelium.png\" alt=\"a person with blue gloves touches a sheet of white, foam-like mycelium\" width=\"472\" height=\"314\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">harvesting mycelium. (courtesy of&nbsp;ecovative)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>the 78,000-square-foot vertical farm in upstate new york can grow 3 million pounds of fungus-based meats per year. \u201cwe will be able to replace up to 1 million pounds of bacon,\u201d bass said. as of july, 2022,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/myforestfoods.com\/myblog\/mybacon-is-now-available-in-three-natural-food-markets\">mybacon<\/a>&nbsp;is available in three health food stores, but the company has ambitious plans for expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>substituting plant-based alternatives for meat and other animal products can dramatically reduce society\u2019s carbon footprint, mitigate climate change&nbsp;and improve human health, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/report\/ar6\/wg3\/\">latest findings<\/a>&nbsp;from the united nations\u2019 intergovernmental panel on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>meanwhile, in the netherlands, innovators are focusing their myco-attention on furniture and building insulation. \u201cmycelium-based foam and sandwich composites have been actively developed for construction structures,\u201d qin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>while these ancillary household goods do not pose the same threat to climate and the environment as plastic packaging or animal agriculture, the toxins commonly found in common construction materials do pose a risk to human health and do not exist within a closed-loop system, eventually ending up in landfills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201ceven if eps [expanded polystyrene, commonly used for insulation] is disposed of correctly, it can take thousands of years to degrade, evidently making it extremely difficult to properly contain,\u201d writes owen robertson in a report, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.designsociety.org\/publication\/42518\/fungal+future%3a+a+review+of+mycelium+biocomposites+as+an+ecological+alternative+insulation+material\">fungal futur<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.designsociety.org\/publication\/42518\/fungal+future%3a+a+review+of+mycelium+biocomposites+as+an+ecological+alternative+insulation+material\">e<\/a>,\u201d for the technical university of denmark. \u201cthis has resulted in bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in food webs across the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ecovative\u2019s licensed partner in the netherlands,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grown.bio\/building\/\">grown bio<\/a>, is working on a bio-composite, mycelium-based insulation product to replace expanded polystyrene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the last hurdle to market success is convincing buyers that mycelium-based products are just as durable and reliable as plastic. \u201cproving that these new bio-based materials have the same performance characteristics as the traditional materials is a challenge,\u201d bass said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>mycelium, a root-like&nbsp;structure that grows beneath mushrooms, is a promising alternative to plastic packaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4937,5034],"tags":[360,5075,590],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-27085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plastic","category-storyfest-2023","tag-climate","tag-mycelium","tag-plastic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.4 - 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