Dell Starts Using Mushroom Cushioning on Servers

It seems that Dell has once again drawn the attention of the web, although, in this case, the reason is much different from what users and IT market entities might be expecting.

The industry doesn't really pay that much attention to what various IT players use to ensure that their products don't get damaged during shipment.

Still, as with all industries, things sometime take a turn that warrants some looking into, and Dell may have just managed this sort of feat.

Apparently, the outfit started testing out alternatives to styrofoam and polyethylene when packing its servers into boxes for delivery.

The PowerEdge R710 is the test subject, and the solution experimented is known as mushroom cushioning.

For those that may have felt their eyebrows (or one of them) rise, the cushioning is called such because of the method used to obtain the material.

Simply put, it is grown, so to speak, out of cotton hulls, or other waste products, giving another meaning to the idea of recycling.

As such, mushroom cushioning is seen as much more environment-friendly that standard methods because it is not really manufactured and can easily be recycled.

"Our cushions take 5 - 10 days to grow as the spawn, which become the root structure - or by the scientific name, mycelium - of the mushroom,”explains Dell's Oliver Campbell in a blog post.

“All the energy needed to form the cushion is supplied by the carbohydrates and sugars in the ag waste. There's no need for energy based on carbon or nuclear fuels."

So far, only a pilot program has been commenced, but success would imply that this sort of cushioning would be adopted on a larger scale, until 75% of Dell's packaging components end up recyclable by next year (2012).

“Dell plans to eliminate about 20 million pounds of packaging material from our shipments by the end of 2012,” Campbell said.