A company uses mycelium and agricultural by-products to obtain green packaging materials

Jan 6, 2012 10:50 GMT  ·  By

Human manufacturers could take longer breaks in the near future, since their daily tasks could be successfully accomplished by hard-working mycelium, processing agricultural byproducts to offer a better alternative to conventional packaging products.

The new eco-friendly items could be exploited on a much larger scale, greening up the construction sector, CleanTechnica informs.

A similar goal is set by a team of experts trying to use CO2-eating microorganisms to launch a different kind of bio-materials on the market.

The cycle, introduced by EcovativeDesign, is simple and easy to follow. Agricultural waste is shipped from local farms, stored and mixed and then properly cleaned to avoid any bacterial contamination.

The compound is then inoculated with mycelium. It takes up to a week for it to grow the sustainable material, after processing agricultural byproducts. In this phase no water or harmful chemicals are required.

A heat-drying treatment is planned for the next stage of production and the final product, expected to be both durable, green and risk-free is ready to be introduced on the market.

In the end, the eco-friendly material obtained through this unconventional method is shipped to clients. This initiative represents a global premiere and if it were to prove its efficiency, it would definitely revolutionize the entire industry, safeguarding buyers from the effects of appalling chemicals hidden in traditional wrappers.

“Unlike other bio-plastics, our technology isn’t based on turning food or fuel crops into materials; we’re only using inedible crop waste to grow our products. The final biodegradable materials we produce have a variety of end-of-life options, including home composting,” reveal officials from EcovativeDesign.

Furthermore, this method is preserving water and is eliminating the usage of toxic compounds. Moreover, because mycelium act like natural glue, they can successfully replace traditional ingredients like formaldehyde without impacting the quality of the final items.

Apart from the fact that the product is entirely safe and natural, it can also be modeled into different shapes and sizes. Since this project appears to have a lot of potential, its developers are encouraged by 3M to scale up the production.