Name: Are mushrooms the new plastic?
Uploaded: 2010-10-04T09:00:00Z
Duration: 8 min 48 s
Description: 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.

Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?

Are mushrooms the new plastic?

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.

Traditional plastics like Styrofoam require huge amounts of energy and can linger in landfills for thousands of years, occupying up to 25 percent of landfill volume in the United States. By harnessing mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, innovators are creating materials from agricultural byproducts that perform like plastic but compost quickly in the soil. These materials are grown, not manufactured, and can be tailored using local feedstocks. This approach offers a vision for packaging and construction that works with nature rather than against it.