2010-10-10

EcoCradle -- Packaging made from Farm Waste and Mushrooms

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - Latest "Green" Packing Material? Mushrooms! - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

Packing foam now entering the marketplace is engineered from mushrooms and agricultural waste


The composite of inedible agricultural waste and mushroom roots is called Mycobond™, and its manufacture requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material.

And unlike most foam substitutes, when no longer useful, it makes great compost in the garden.

The technology was the brainchild of two former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, who founded Ecovative Design of Green Island, N.Y., to bring their idea into production.



   ecovative design 


ecovative design

With ecocradle™, you get more than packaging.

EcoCradle™ packaging is great for the environment; it’s made of agricultural byproducts that come from renewable sources. This environmentally-friendly innovation is just as reliable, easy to use, and affordable as competing packaging products, and it's an excellent replacement for custom molded foams like EPS and EPP.

EcoCradle™ is a natural choice

EcoCradle™ packaging is literally grown, not manufactured. We use a growing organism to transform agricultural byproducts like cotton seed hulls and buck wheat hulls into a beautiful protective package. Our patented process is inspired by the efficiency of nature, and uses a filamentous fungi (mushroom roots) to bond this packaging into almost any shape. learn more

Collected from: ecovative design

YouTube - Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?


http://www.ted.com Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.



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