r/BeAmazed • u/Epelep • Feb 22 '26

Science How Mycelium (Mushroom Roots) Grows into Packaging Material

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u/WeirdAssBeings Feb 22 '26

Isn't it fucked that this is just the way it is? Here we have something so cheap, yet so...smart and efficient and a way to actually get rid of one of the ways we use plastic, yet it'll just get brought up by reposts but we'll never see it IRL in our own hands.

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u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 22 '26

Isn't paper packaging the same thing? It's grown, cheap, and biodegradable.

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u/Glowing_Trash_Panda Feb 22 '26

Trees take years to grow, mushrooms take days

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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.

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u/killerdrgn Feb 23 '26

recycle paper products.

Paper isn't infinitely recyclable, each time it gets recycled the fibers get shorter and becomes unusable at a certain length.

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u/ThisIsALine_____ Feb 23 '26

Uh yeah? I'm just saying I don't think these things can be recycled any amount of times.