Made from mushrooms

Why are so many packaging products made of plastics when nature offers a solution? A new technology allows for natural packaging products, that create a new look and feel in a sustainable way.

It is based on biomimicry, specifically the life cycle of a fungus. Mycelium is the name of the root network of mushrooms. Living mycelium grows fast, taking nutrients from the soil and, while growing, it binds the soil together. Every now and then, mushrooms pop out of the mycelium network.

The principle

In the manufacture of the base material for the packaging, mycelium is mixed with organic waste streams that still contain nutrients for the fungus. This mixture is filled in moulds, and then placed in a growth chamber. Five days later, the packaging shape is baked in an oven to deactivate the fungus, creating a light and very strong product. 

Products made with mycelium are well suited to pack cosmetic products for example. They are shock proof and light. Also, the look and feel of the packaging creates positive reaction with end customers.

Mycelium products are water repellent and shock absorbing. And it has even captured CO2 out of the air while producing it. Mycelium products are completely biodegradable in the soil and in the sea, which makes them ‘home compostable’. In fact, they form a healthy compost for a garden: when broken into small pieces, the parts will biodegrade in several weeks or months, depending on weather conditions. 

Demand for sustainability

Many companies in the cosmetics industry have started reducing theirenvironmental footprint. This not only applies to the actual productsor supply chain, but also to the packaging. Packaging in the luxury industry is often made to ‘shine’ meaning that expensive, and finite materials are used to increase sales of the cosmetics products. Examples are packages made with rare or finite materials, lacquers, extensive print, or complex laminates that are difficult or impossible to recycle.

However, with the increasing demand for conscious products in sustainable packaging, the choice for those shiny packages is now starting to backfire. More and more customers are simply refusing useless packaging and actively search for less harmful alternatives. Since the publication of the article ‘The Ugly Problem of Pretty Packaging’1 this trend has even accelerated. When googling for unboxing, YouTube contains thousands of videos that show customers who are frustrated about packaging. 

Therefore, marketeers and packaging technologists within the cosmetics industry are looking for alternatives. Packaging made from mycelium creates an opportunity that goes beyond protection and presentation: it draws attention from consumers, and ‘lifts’ the brand image.

What is sustainable?

One of the famous guidelines to live sustainably is ‘Reduce-Reuse-Recycle’.It should be done in that specific order: first try to reduce consumption, then reuse the items as long as possible, and finally make sure the components of the products can be recycled into other useful items. 

However, reduction is not always the best solution. The trend to use less packaging has resulted in thinner and thinner materials, to the point that they sometimes do not protect a product well enough. If a product in its packaging gets damaged, more cost and loss is suffered than the increase of the protection would generate. Also, complex laminates that are non-recyclable are invented, which means that rare materials are used only for a very short time span. 

The answer to the question ‘what is truly sustainable?’ is not easy and depends on the product and location to pack. But in general, the first ‘golden rule’ is that packaging should be functional: it should protect and present a product. With functionality as the first evaluation, the beginning- and end-of-life should be evaluated as next steps to choose between the multiple options that exist. 

To start with the beginning of packaging-life, some basic questions can be:

Is the packaging made with renewable materials? Fossil fuel-based products are clearly not renewable, while biobased products are. Even within the biobased range of packaging, many differences exist for example with cardboard from trees that need 30 or so years, or packaging made from grass or tomato plant waste that is renewable within a time span of one year.

Is the packaging sourced close to the place of packaging, or has it travelled far to arrive at the place of use?

Has the production of the packaging used much energy, or was heavy machinery required to manufacture packaging?

There are also questions about the end-of life to choose a sustainable package:

Is it possible to postpone the end-of life, for example by reusing the packaging? The first innovations in reusable packaging exist with refillable containers for example in the cosmetics industry winning presence.

Is it possible to recycle the packaging? This not only requires a packaging to be either ‘separatable’ or consisting of mono materials. It also requires a collection and sorting industry to actually make sure that products are really recycled. This recycling industry is only well developed in western countries. Globally, less than 10% of the plastics are recycled. 

Mycelium products as solution

Mycelium composite packaging tick all the boxes of the above questions. In functionality, it offers many advantages. First, it gives a good shock protection for sensitive products, or insulation value for products that need to be kept at a constant tempe-rature. Besides, the look-and feel of my-celium packaging also triggers positive reactions: they have a soft touch, a very natural look, and present itself in a natural white to creamy colour, sometimes mixed with shades of brown, grey, or orange that reveal the mushroom type used. 

There is no need to grow anything to make mycelium products, it can be created with organic waste streams. There is no need to get these waste streams from far away: they can be found practically everywhere where there is agriculture. Probably the most impressive characteristics about mycelium packaging is the organism itself. It needs no heavy machinery to produce. This makes it a renewable, locally source able/producible and low energy source of packaging materials.

Furthermore, the material is home compostable in many different environments: soil, sea, industrial composting plant. Especially when the packaging is crumbled in small pieces, it will biodegrade into compost within weeks. But if supply chains allow reuse of mycelium packaging, that is certainly an option: it is strong enough for that. 

Manufacturing

The creation of a mycelium protective packaging is done in five steps:

1. The design of the packaging to create optimal protection and good product presentation. The design is also evaluated against production requirements. First, it can be grown in a mould, and second, it can be demoulded. Moulds for mycelium products always need to have one flat side, the filling side of the mould.
2. Prototyping to create a test model for trial fitting and give the client a first physical example of the new created packaging.
3. Creation of the moulds: Since the growth cycle of a packaging made of mycelium takes seven days, the moulds are reused weekly. This means that the number of moulds is determined by the total quantity of packages required, and number of weeks available.
4. Filling, growing, baking: This is the repetitive, weekly process of filling moulds with the substrate, growing for five to six days, demoulding, baking the packaging for one to two days to deactivate the mycelium and refilling the moulds. The process steps are repeated week after week. Machines and robots can assist the team in doing this.
5. Packing and shipping: If needed, grown packages can be stored for a while. 

Broader perspective

Packaging based on mycelium can contribute to cosmetic brands by supporting the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 

• 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure: By helping customers grow their businesses sustainably and driving innovation ourselves.
• 12 Responsible consumption and production: There are no harmful waste created during the entire life cycle of mycelium and replacing toxic materials.
• 13 Climate action: is supported by growing carbon-negative products, and constantly challenging the energy consumption of our processes.
• 15 Life on land: by focusing on native crops as well as decreasing the burden of disposal of agricultural waste.

References

1 grandviewresearch, https://www.racked.com/
2017/5/23/15680638/ecommerce-packaging-waste