Ask anyone and they will tell you how much a nuisance plastic has become in the home, the environment, and everywhere you look. It was created in 1907 by chemist Leo Baekeland for convenience and to be used as a cheaper alternative. It became a success and was quickly incorporated into everything, kitchenware, storage, and so much more. In 1907, Leo could have never predicted that his creation could have such a nightmarish effect on our world. In the world, we are looking at 350 million tons of plastic waste every year. No one one-hundred years ago could have seen this coming. This is a very serious problem, we are now seeing microplastics in everything from our food, our clean water, even to the stomachs of animals in the ocean and on land. It has become a huge problem that requires a huge solution. Some people have come up with some ideas, they may be a little out there but it is worth a shot!
F. fomentarius has three layers which makes it a great candidate for an alternative to plastic. The outside layers are tough and hardened, which would be well suited for packaging and storage. The inner layer has a softer feel which could be used in place of leather. And the innermost layer has a texture that feels similar to wood. A team has already begun the process of testing this fungus to see what the best next steps of action are. I think it is so important for people to have ideas that may be out there and not inside the box. We are headed into a period of time where what we have done in the past is no longer an option. We need new and creative ideas to make this environment healthier.
Another team proposes that fungi can be grown to make differentshapes using a mold. If
you have ever got something that came with a ton of foam you know that that
stuff is getting thrown away and not recycled. But if your package or toy came
inside a fungi-shaped mold that protected your item you could throw that out
into the yard and it would decompose completely. Humans love convenience and
the less recycling required the better. A company in New York, Evocative, is
already replacing their packaging materials with fungal mycelia. It is even
proposed that someday we will have less e-waste due to it being replaced by
fungal material. This is still in its first phase but it is slowly gaining
traction and I am hoping that in five to ten years we may even see large
companies adapting this process in order to better fight plastic pollution.
In the video below, (optional
watch but fascinating) they are 3D printing fungi in certain molds to create
furniture and more. It creates a cork-like material, sturdy and practical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMXH5TqqG8&t=27s
I think with so much going wrong we must find some hope in different ways otherwise we will be too exhausted to lift our head. Look for the good, there is some out there and there are still some people working fervently to create a better world.
Wow, of all the plastic alternatives I have heard of before I have never seen fungi proposed before until reading this blog post. To think that we create hundreds of tons of waste a year in plastic alone is insane. I am hopeful to see companies adopt fungi fibres as a method of packing material over plastic products. Additionally, just a fact I wanted to include - paper can also be made from fungi, and perhaps could be a method of reducing the amount of trees cut down each year for paper production.
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