Sunday, April 24, 2011

There's a fungus among us..

Everybody hates styrofoam peanuts...right?  They're messy and accumulate in our landfills without any hope
of degrading and dissapearing over time.  

Now, the company Ecovative has come up with a packaging material that uses the inedible by-products from grains, and adds a fungus that feeds upon it (without any water). This fungus creates a dense fiber after 5-7 days that is then dried using high temperatures and Voila! you have a strong packing material that will biodegrade over time.


Ecovative is now working with Ford-- who is coming out with a car that will replace it standard bumpers, side doors and dashboards with a similar fungus based biodegradable foam that will  replace all of their petroleum base plastics. 

Now, this maybe a little in left field as far as your next furniture purchase --but this modern wooden bench by Shinwei Rhoda Yen  has it's own built in non-toxic, biodegradable mechanism.
How you might ask? It's actually has mushrooms growing on it..


mushroom chair Shinwei Rhoda Yen
(images from Tree Hugger)

Hmm.. Maybe as an outdoor garden bench.



On another note, I don't know how comfortable this chair is, but I really love this idea.

(image from Grass Roots Modern)


And lastly, this lamp is created from the empty cartons found in Toffifay candy.
Looks cool doesn't it? I wonder if it still smells like chocolate when you turn it on...

(Toffifee Lamp from We Upcycle)

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