Ecovative Design Grows 'Green' Packaging Materials

GreenTracker| MotherNature strikes again, working to develop a new packing material that grows itself, requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing materials, and makes great compost in the garden when cast off as garbage. 

Amazon — start your engines. 

“We don’t manufacture materials, we grow them,” says Gavin McIntyre, who with Eben Bayer founded Ecovative Design of Green Island, NY. “We’re converting agricultural byproducts into a higher-value product.”

With support from NSF, McIntyre and Bayer are developing a new, less energy-intensive method to sterilize their agricultural-waste starter material—a necessary step for enabling the mushroom fibers, called mycelia, to grow. McIntyre and Bayer are replacing a steam-heat process with a treatment made from cinnamon-bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil and lemongrass oil. via Science Daily

These initiatives represent a new America, and quite frankly, we don’t read about stunning innovations like these often enough. Bravo!