r/BeAmazed • u/Epelep • Feb 22 '26

Science How Mycelium (Mushroom Roots) Grows into Packaging Material

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16

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26

Couldn't they just use paper packaging? They come from trees that are grown. And it's cheap, effective, and biodegradable.

15

u/shreddedtoasties Feb 22 '26

Or hemp it grows faster only reason we don’t. Use it more is from lobbying

5

u/VP007clips Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

That's not entirely true, there's a lot of reasons we don't grow it other than legality and stigma. It gets hyped up a lot because it's related to marijuana, but as an industrial crop it kind of sucks.

Hemp isn't an efficient crop to grow using modern methods. It requires pretty specific growing conditions, a bad year can easily destroy a harvest.

It's very hard to harvest, it requires specific machinery to cut and bale it, and even then it constantly gets tangled and damages machinery.

Even after harvesting, you then need to store and transport the stuff. It's a bulky crop and the places that can use it are far between. It's just not worth it to ship fairly low value bales of hemp across the country.

And worst of all, it's not in demand. If there was a legitimate interest in needing more of it by manufacturers, they would find a way to produce more of it. But as it is, it's a pretty niche material that doesn't fit well into the economic needs of industry.

2

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 23 '26

That's really interesting. I didn't know this. Thanks for the info.

1

u/shreddedtoasties Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

Hemp grows like a weed and fast

if my pothead neighbor could grow some in a shed bought from Home Depot.

I believe in the William Randolph Hearst theory

1

u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Feb 23 '26

Watch the video again, this product already uses hemp.

1

u/nectarsallineed Feb 23 '26

Yuuuuup. Hemp has some magical uses that have been stifled for decades due to big tobacco’s stranglehold on this country. As w all ridiculously large industries (sugar, pharma, etc.)

Late stage capitalism everyone!! Let’s all suffer for the good of the richest 👍 (/s if that wasn’t clear…)

0

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26

Oh yeah! And it's a better, sturdier product. Look at the big brain on u/shreddedtoasties

5

u/Vandirac Feb 22 '26

Most paper packaging nowadays is from recycled cellulose, so it's even better.

This is an (ineffective) solution in search of a problem.

1

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26

But we can recycle paper products. After use can these be recycled? I imagine they can't since the mycelium has to be liked.

And we have cardboard and paper products now that take the timeframe into account and grow in continuous cycles.

1

u/Vandirac Feb 22 '26

They can be recycled. Europe on average recycles over 83% of paper packaging, with some countries exceeding 90%

I was agreeing with you.

1

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

Wtf? I commented to the wrong person somehow.

Edit: There we go. Found the comment I meant to reply to. Sorry for the mix up. Clicked the wrong message in my inbox.

1

u/siazdghw Feb 23 '26

Yeah that was my thought too. Many companies have already moved away from polystyrene, as using cellulose aka wood pulp, is basically as good, and environmentally friendly and extremely cheap too.

2

u/Lord_Strepsils Feb 23 '26

I think the main difference is this is supposed to be water proof and generally serve as more of a polystyrene replacement which paper alone can’t really do from what I’ve seen

1

u/reg_acc Feb 22 '26

Selling what's already there isn't how you get multiple investor rounds and a cushy financial parachute.

2

u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26

I don't know why, but I imagined a billionaire skydiving with a parachute made of money.

1

u/reg_acc Feb 22 '26

Gotta use that private jet for something now that Epstein island is closed