5 Ways Mycelium Materials Are Taking Over the World
Mycelium is poised to take over the world. Many say that from a natural perspective, it already does. But what about the visible world? The material world that we interact with everyday? Could we build a sustainable and circular world entirely out of mycelium materials?
The answer is, we are working on it. The properties of mycelium are vast and there is great potential for it to become incorporated in current supply chains as a viable material alternative to more traditional, often polluting and rarely circular materials.
So what traditional materials could we replace in our daily life with mycelium materials? Here are 5 ways mycelium is revolutionizing the material world.
Mycelium Packaging
Packaging, no matter how beautiful or sturdy, is almost always single-use (thrown away within 1 year of purchase) and according to the US govt, contributes to 80% of trash in landfills. This amount does not include what is dumped in our oceans which current estimates measure at 269,000 tons of plastics.
Mycelium materials present a crucial opportunity to eliminate one of the worst types of packaging offenders, styrofoam, which can take up to 500 years to break down.
Because of the expanding nature of mycelium, getting the perfect fit for your product is as easy as building a mold and filling it with mycelium and substrate of your choice (often agricultural waste). In as little as 1 week, you will have the perfect fitting container for your item that is also lightweight and strong. Mycelium packaging is biodegradable and breaks down easily making it a fully circular product.
Building from Mycelium Materials
Another major environmental offender are construction materials, like cement which make up a sizable percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. Insulation is another material that while being critical for energy efficiency, is currently created using fossil fuels and sometimes harmful chemicals.
Fortunately, mycelium also makes a sturdy, reliable building material. Mycelium bricks are molded and can be stacked up to 40 feet high.
Biohm is a company that is creating insulation using mycelium. Like packaging and other mycelium bricks, this material has many exciting properties that make it a perfect alternative to what is currently available, such as: thermal capacity, fire resistance, and circularity.
If the industry begins to substitute these important building components at scale with mycelium materials, a less harmful future from construction awaits.
Woven mycelium
On the flip side of the hard, functional packaging and bricks, are mycelium wovens, including silk! If you are vegan and want to experience silk without the use of animal labor (silk worm or spider) mycelium silk offers a highly desirable alternative. With the same properties as traditional silk; heating, cooling, strength, feel, there is no compromising with silken mycelium materials.
The door remains open for many more wovens made by mycelium materials.
Household objects
Furnishing your home can be one of the most meaningful things you do to create a custom space for yourself and your family. Unfortunately, many furniture companies make furniture that is not built to last or uses virgin materials that are not sustainably harvested.
Mycelium materials offer sustainable solutions for many of these objects and because of the variable nature of mycelium, they can often be easily customized for your individual household needs. These products are currently available for purchase:
As the use of mycelium becomes more ubiquitous, it might soon become possible to furnish your mycelium home entirely with mycelium products!
Leather made from mycelium materials
As you probably know, society’s craving for cows has been leading us down a dangerous path of environmental degradation for decades. In addition to the land needed to graze the cattle and the methane emissions they create, there is also the valuable land and water taken up by monocrops to feed cows.
We are clearly ready for a major shift and with nature and human ingenuity working hand in hand to harness the power of mycelium, that time has arrived. Moving beyond “vegan leather” which was simply petroleum based, there are now mycelium leathers being produced at scale that are set to take over the market.
Without sacrificing form for function, our mycelium leather alternative is a beautiful example of the sustainable and circular future of mycelium leather items, from handbags to car interiors, that people can pass down and tell stories about for years to come.
There is very little that mycelium cannot do to help humans solve the current circularity and sustainability materials crisis. Because of their unique properties, mycelium can be turned into a variety of materials; from packaging to building materials, silks to leather. If we continue to take the steps to bring these mycelium materials to scale for both luxury and mass market consumption, we will be one tremendous step closer to a sustainable future.
→ Watch this video to see how we create our fine mycelium leather.