Ecovative
#MoveTheDate Solutions
Personal / Community: Community project
Nature sub-categories: Pollution remediation or prevention, Ecosystem health
Description: BFI Award ""Ecovative"" 2013: Mushroom Packaging is a new class of home-compostable bio-plastics made from living organisms, mushroom mycelia, developed by Ecovative. Their high-performance, environmentally responsible alternatives to traditional plastic foam packaging, insulation, and other synthetic materials offer a revolutionary, truly sustainable alternative to the current toxic plastic foam materials that pollute and burden the modern world Ecovative’s technology resolves critical concerns for waste, energy, and consumer health. An EPA study found that plastics comprise 25% of landfills by volume and expanded foams are the worst offenders. Petrochemical plastic foams notoriously blow away, becoming litter on land or in ocean gyres. As more cities recognize the hazards of foams, Ecovative offers better alternatives that reduce waste. Today, companies switch from Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) to Mushroom® Packaging, with added value from lower embodied energy. Initial Life Cycle Assessments of production demonstrate significant advantages over EPS. Because the production process is still evolving, an LCA has not yet been published. Made of crop waste and fungi, Mushroom Materials naturally compost at home. Products can be used as garden mulch, and customers report success trapping moisture, upcycling soil nutrients, and keeping weeds down. EPS is highly flammable and the 2011 US National Toxicology report deemed styrene a likely carcinogen. Mushroom Materials exclude harmful chemicals and emit no VOCs. Furthermore, they achieve a class A fire rating (ASTM E84) without flame retardant chemicals. These unique properties support a material platform for building insulation, car bumpers, and even surfboards.
Website about this solution: https://ecovativedesign.com/home
Video about this solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YEvHUxIEE
Why I love this solution: Ecovative’s biomaterial platform technology resolves critical concerns for waste, energy, and consumer health by working with nature to grow an alternative. Ecovative fills a gap on the supply side for alternatives to foam packaging, insulation, and other synthetics. Their biomaterial platform technology resolves critical concerns for waste, energy, and consumer health by working with nature to grow an alternative.