A Better, Biodegradable Plastic

A New York company has discovered a potential way to replace plastics with biodegradable matter. The products are all-natural and can be created in less than 5 days, have no allergy concerns and are completely non-toxic. The products are impervious to fire up to a point, are just as water resistant as Styrofoam, are more UV-stable than foam, and will break down in 180 days in any landfill or backyard when exposed to the right microbes. But what is this miracle matter? The answer is an unexpected one: fungi. Ecovative Design, in Green Island, N.Y., is using several species of fungi to manufacture environmentally-friendly products. The process begins with farming byproducts, such as cotton gin waste, seed hulls, hemp or other plant materials. These are sterilized, mixed with nutrients and chilled. The spawn are so good at proliferating that every cubic inch of material that they are added to soon contains millions of tiny fungal fibers. Whether it's leaves or mulch, mycelia fungi digest natural materials and can also bind everything together in a cohesive mat. And these mats can be grown in molds, such as those that might make a packing carton. Once the desired texture, rigidity and other characteristics of the product have been achieved, the mycelia is popped from its mold and heated and dried. This kills the bacteria and stops the growth of the fungi. But it gets even better-- the fungi is inexpensive to cultivate, as it can be grown on farm waste that can't be fed to animals or burned for fuel. It can grow without sunlight or much human oversight in simple trays at room temperature, which means that production won't require immense greenhouses with costly temperature-control systems. Best of all, a solution like this greatly reduces carbon footprints. We look forward to the day when plastics and foams are obsolete, and we live in a more biodegradable world.