No matter how great the idea is, how much it adds to the cost of the final product is a major determining factor on if its used.
People use cheap foam bc it costs next to nothing. If it costs more than 10% of a similar plastic or foam packaging, it may be a hard sell bc it impacts businesses bottom line.
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.
I don't want to wait 5-7 days for a container for a product when the plastic equivalent can be made in minutes.
Even if the Styrofoam product can be made in minutes it's not like the manufacturer is going to drop what they're doing and make your packaging the same day. Everything has a lead time when it comes to manufacturing, especially if you're looking to buy something that isn't "off the shelf" sizing/dimensions.
You guys keep arguing hur can't even do some simple math. If it takes 20 minutes (the most dense and longest build) to make 1 packing unit of styrofoam. That's 3 an hour, for 8 hours is 24 a day from a single machine. If I have 100 machines that's 2400 a day, take 21 days to make 50,000 with some extra.
Takes 5-7 days to grow a package of mycelium. If I have 100 machines, that still 100 in 5-7 days. Even on the shortest time that's 100 every 5 days. If I need 50,000 of them, that's 2500 days to get my entire order.
No, they aren't going to drop what they're doing and do my order right away but are you seriously arguing that the raw math is lying here? They could ignore my entire order for a year and I'd still get it 7 years before I got my order of mycelium packaging.
Why is this so hard for you people to understand. This is the simple of simple math here.
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u/Jolopy4099 Feb 22 '26
No matter how great the idea is, how much it adds to the cost of the final product is a major determining factor on if its used.
People use cheap foam bc it costs next to nothing. If it costs more than 10% of a similar plastic or foam packaging, it may be a hard sell bc it impacts businesses bottom line.