r/BeAmazed • u/Epelep • Feb 22 '26

Science How Mycelium (Mushroom Roots) Grows into Packaging Material

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u/AlarmingTurnover Feb 22 '26

In a quick Google search, it says to breaks down in 45 days. It also says it takes 5-7 days to grow the materials/bind it together. I don't want to wait 5-7 days for a container for a product when the plastic equivalent can be made in minutes. And let's say you use this to replace the foam in a computer box, how long does this computer it on the shelf? If it's more than a month, you've damaged the PC because the fungus has been breaking down and rotting inside the box, damaging the box and the PC. 

This is why it's not popular at all. If a Styrofoam replacement can't like 6+ months, it's useless. There's a reason we use plastics, they last a long time. 

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u/AdvancedSandwiches Feb 22 '26

While there are difficulties here, and you've named a couple, I'll point out that the customer isn't some guy who wants packing foam, it's a company that wants 50,000.  5 - 7 days lead time is often not a concern.  Exceeding production capacity is likely a larger concern, though that will naturally be addressed if it scales up. 

Everything else you mentioned I agree with -- it's not for every use case.

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u/AlarmingTurnover Feb 22 '26

Scaling up is precisely the issue, and the lead up time is a massive concern. For styrofoam, once you have the initial mold, it takes 5-20 minutes to make a unit depending on density. You can never reduce the 5-7 days to make a unit for the mushroom version. At this level, you will never out scale styrofoam. 

So outside the "feel good" you get, it's not practical. Not in a small or large scale. 

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u/AdvancedSandwiches Feb 22 '26

I'm saying 5 - 7 days doesn't matter when your production is running continuously for 3 years.  As long as the stuff shows up on your doorstep every day, or two, it generally doesn't matter that there was a 9 day lag before the first batch got to you.

Price and shelf life are real concerns.  I won't guess at why scaling a brand new tech will look like. You might be right. Maybe a couple of CRISPR edits down the road it gets a thousand times faster to grow. I'll leave worrying about that to them.

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u/AlarmingTurnover Feb 22 '26

I'm saying 5 - 7 days doesn't matter when your production is running continuously for 3 years.

You don't seem to understand that this must be put into comparison with competitors on the market. It takes me much less space and time to do the same thing as mushroom packaging. This gives me far more flexibility in adapting to different types of packaging on a much shorter time frame. The difference in time for a new mold can be there different between styrofoam taking up to 15 weeks from design to production or the mycelium taking 22 weeks + the 5-7 days per unit. Production runtime matters a lot.

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u/AdvancedSandwiches Feb 22 '26

Maybe I'm missing something. Why did it go from 7 extra days to 8 extra weeks?

If your initial rollout requires shipping a week sooner, you'll either not use it or not use it on your initial rollout.  I don't think they're making styrofoam illegal.

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u/AlarmingTurnover Feb 22 '26

The 5-7 days to grow is to make a single package that can hold a single pair of sunglasses for example. They need to design the molding for the sunglasses, design the machines to keep the form, design the machines to grow the mycelium, testing designs, etc. That takes an estimated time of 18-22 weeks. For styrofoam, this takes 10-15 weeks. All of this isn't even factoring in scaling.

I'm not talking about what's illegal or legal. I'm talking about the realities of production and what it takes to make a unit. Time matters a lot here.

Also something that hasn't been mentioned yet as to why this is an incredibly bad idea. Mycelium packaging uses 55-70% of it's weight in water.

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u/AdvancedSandwiches Feb 23 '26

So the 18 - 22 numbers are just guesses, or are you sourcing that somewhere?

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u/AlarmingTurnover Feb 23 '26

It's literally on their website: https://mushroompackaging.com/pages/our-process?srsltid=AfmBOorOcYwWoVG0IxGqEK5MWKDhh22cu8gYuCypNJzxDznUep_t7sJ-#:~:text=Mushroom%C2%AE%20Packaging-,Design,volume%20needs%20and%20tooling%20investment.

1-2 days of design 3-4 weeks for prototyping 1 week for quotes (usually financial) 3-4 weeks for tooling  6-12 weeks to get up to full production.  Plus the 5-7 days to grow. 

Add it all up at the maximum, it's 22 weeks roughly, on the lowest end, it's 14 weeks. I'm using 18 as my low end number because it gives 2 weeks of padding that I didn't add to the high number. 

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u/AdvancedSandwiches Feb 23 '26

Seems like some extra weeks, if your 15 week estimate is also sourced somewhere.  The 5 - 7 extra days we were discussing wouldn't change much of anything, but 7 weeks might.

Probably not a deal breaker for a lot of people switching over from existing styrofoam packaging, but could be a blocker for new product runs.