Mushrooms as the Building Material of the Future

Via Elephant Journal:

A startup company named Ecovative has a vision of making a vast variety of building materials from mushrooms, and the company CEO, Eben Bayer, is not hallucinating—at least some experts think he’s not.

The building materials are grown in dark places, where the mushrooms feast on agricultural trash. The result is bricks strong enough to destroy metal saw blades, insulation better than Styrofoam and beams as strong as wood.

All of which is biodegradable and could be used as garden mulch.

Because of their innovative work, and reuse of agricultural refuse, Ecovative has received grants from the EPA, the Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

Mushrooms as the Building Material of the Future. ~ Thomas Detras | elephant journal

Points:

  • “Ecovative is planning to manufacture packing materials almost immediately. Imagine, never again having to deal with those static-laden indestructible Styrofoam peanuts.”