Wednesday, October 6, 2010

TED.com: Eben Bayer's Styrene Replacement

Styrene is one of the most environmentally problematic materials that we use in our everyday lives. It is responsible for a quarter of our landfills and is made up of largely petroleum, rendering it essentially impossible to compost. Eban Bayer presents a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative. The proposed product, MycoBond, uses agricultural waste items, such as rice husks and oat hulls, and the fungus mycelium to grow organic polymers in any form. The end product takes 5 days to grow, but requires very little processing. It has physical properties similar to styrene, making it a viable packaging alternative, and has an insulation value similar to that of fiberglass. After use the product will decompose quickly, as it is 100% organic, and could be reprocessed into topsoil. It is an amazing material, and will hopefully bring to light even more bio-materials and possible natural polymers to replace oil-based materials.


Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?

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