So what do think? Any uses I missed? Would you want to live in a mycelium insulated home? And thanks to Curiosity Stream ... use the code "Undecided" to get CuriosityStream for less than $15 a year! curiositystream.com/Undecided. Also, be sure to check out The Future of Solid State Wind Energy - No More Blades: th-cam.com/video/nNp21zTeCDc/w-d-xo.html
the concern is its biodegradability...you dont want to buy shoes or houses that degraded after few weeks...it definitely works great as a single use product/packaging..though, it has potentials
Mycelium should be more widespread! We should have stopped the use of plastic completely and switched over to something like mycelium. It is so much better for the environment and for our own health, it seems nothing but logical to use biodegradable alternatives to polymers. The societal lag causing old habits to die hard will most likely be humanity's downfall. The lack of federal drive to take initiative on issues such as this is what is holding humanity back.
Sad thing is corporate oil companies all over the world doesn't agree. Because their oil by products after fuel production is processed into non-biodegradable plastics. Which won a Nobel peace prize for making plastics possible from oil by products.
@@TeenyTinyDevil they can put it back where they dig it or at least process them into a more suitainable products. Remember making it into plastics is just a temporary solutions of delaying the inevitable. All outcomes so far lead to more trash and unsustainable to the environment. Sadly people seems to ignore this cycle.
Well according to this there are already 4 companies doing it. So maybe it will keep going. And as I understand it you need oil to make plastic. And we are running out of oil. So this has the potential of filling at least part of the demand the end of oil will leave.
I remember proposing this concept to a friend of mine, they replied “Yeah but I don’t really want to eat off of dead mushrooms roots.” As if decomposed plant juice refined into plastic is better,
Frustration with potential late adopters of a technology may be frustrating, but we must convince people with evidence not verbal jabs. It is unintelligent to disregard reason, but it is unwise to simply write those people off as fools.
One thing like to mention here is...does the person who made plastic marketed it by saying hey..this is best to use not clothes...the positioning idea is very bad here..even though people started Caring about environments but its not 100% of world, we cant postitiotthese product in market daying this is good alternative to platic and its made of dead fungus ....no absolutely no, coat cutting is the key, if we go to business and deal directly with them no need for customer to know what its made and how, they just get it from market if other alternative is not presented
I would love to one day look at "trash" on the beach, see a mycelium package on the water and know that it won't take long before it's not there anymore.
evolution would indicate that all of life is aware. That is how it forms adaptations to environment and stimuli, so it likely has feelings perhaps not as complex as ours but things alive happen to live. odd concept, so being more intune with life is a good thing. This product is good but understanding that we take life in order to live ours will help us reduce that amount of life shed. Being connected with all things in life and not disconnected from our roles as Humans. We are care takers of this world. But we aren't caring for it real well. Or ourselves.
I would love to see some big companies adopt this as internal packaging for electronics like TVs and white goods. The polystyrene used for those is the definition of single use - moulded to one product, just to get it to the consumer safely. I would love to be able to put that on my compost heap when I recycle the box it came in.
I think a better Idea would be making it a legal requirement that any goods like this for sale must be built to last, come with service manuals and be easily serviced and repaired, not be subject to any tax and even be subsidised to stop the manufacturing and sales of cheap low quality goods that have minimal warranties and break as soon as it expires. Using mycelium is just not currently feasable because the extra weight of mycelium compared to styrofoam would result in more fuel being used for transport, and the toxic fumes released into the environment from burning additional fuel is far worse than burying some styrofoam. When clean electric can be produced in excess and all vehicles run on electric then it will be worth it.
@@talibong9518 even if we make it built to last, technology is advancing at a pretty fast rate. TVs just a few years ago looked like clunky messes that displayed a magnitude lower of the pixels. Now they’re heading towards being smart. Imagine having a TV that’s still running the first version of android with hardware that doesn’t allow HDMI input. That’s what your TV is going to feel like in 10 years even if you can keep it in perfect condition. I think having something built to last will only work once we’ve plateaued with TV technology.
@@talibong9518 Corporations of the world will never make their products more durable/long lasting for one reason. PROFIT If we aren't replacing our phones every 18 months, or our cars every 3 to 5 years, their profits shrink and we all know it's a cardinal sin to interfere with the shareholders profits. . .Even if all they do is sit around in their mansions and make money doing nothing.
Nah I want to live in a biological engineered organism. Plant a bunch of trees in a square. Grows the structure rapidly like how fast bamboo grows. Put some spores onto it. Builds some walls. Following the tree path. Have my computer made from human brain cells. Forget to feed my computer enough protein. All the biological engineered structures combine into a intelligent super organism and consumes me. Making me a slave it controls to spread its seeds.
I also just saw somewhere that many mushrooms can in fact digest plastics and still be edible.. But maybe we could use both mixed in with the wood chips to help start breaking down the over flowing plastics that don't get recycled and use it with this plastic fungus method. We are not only helping break down unused plastic, but also making a new product with waste plastics.. MUSHROOMS WHERE THE ANSWER ALL Along!
@@roberine7241 It's a verb and one of the initial phases in the development of a a seed into maturity. It occurs just prior to root development. The context that I was using it in was a joke and in reply to the comment prior made by TurquoiseInk. It was just a bad joke. Have a great day!!
I’ll never get behind metal and paper alternatives to plastic items due to their high production energy costs. Sometimes as much as 500 times the pollution into the atmosphere. But this is an actual win win product. Hope it gains traction.
@@freddynovember5842 printer? mmm idk if that would work, it grows into a mold it cant be placed in a pattern. Plus molding technology is hundreds of times more cheaper than 3d printing
i doubt that it will happen. Right now the only Mycelium-Based Technology is under an license, meaning, that other companies have to pay to use it. If they really wanted to help, they would've created a new license, where nobody can monopolize onto it, yet keep costs down. It all comes down to companies being greedy instead of helpful. I am aware that creating things will cost stuff, yes, but somebody has to bite into the sour apple, or else things like this will just not be feasible, and people will just stay with Plastics instead.
Basically, to explain better, let's say, for example, 1Kg of Plastics is worth 50 cents in production, (Obviously not the actual costs, just examples), and Mycelium costs 20 cents in production. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well, yes and no. You're paying 20 cents to produce it, then you have to pay the company who is monopolizing it, which can easily be a good 60-70 Cents for each Kilogram, meaning, in reality, you're paying 80-90 Cents for 1Kg of Mycelium, compared to 50 Cents for 1Kg of Plastics. obviously companies will stay with Plastics instead because Economy. Money first, World second.
Idk, I HATE fiberglass but that stuff can last virtually forever. Idk about dead fungus. Seems vulnerable to getting eaten by animals, bacteria, and living fungi.
Its solved by washing in hot water, after you are done, if you have bare skin while working with this stuff... This is common knowledge for people that have been working with glasfiber insulation more than ones... Anyway Rockwool is not glasfiber and not that problematic as example Glava that is glasfiber. Also very flame resistant. So there is already natural products for the glasfiber ones.
There are also mushrooms that can not only break plastic down into organic matter, they can survive solely on plastic in anaerobic conditions, making them ideal to use in oxygen poor landfills.
Speaking of foam, as a consumer, I *absolutely loathe* styrofoam with a passion (and that’s not even accounting for the environmental impacts). It makes such a massive mess and is impossible to break down. It can be super frustrating.
Acetone breaks it down super quick, leaving a blu-ish fluid that can be molded and reused...the product also takes up a LOT less space...about 20 to 1 with the Acetone able to be reused with a small amount of new fluid added. I have had minor successes with flet panels cut and assembled with either Acetone or EDC (ethylene dichloride)
I love when ppl use bricks as an example of things that you can do with garbage. Its like if someone lost all his members and someone tell him: "well now you can be a door holder"
Use of this for packaging would be such a huge win for everyone. Most items we receive come with so much unrecyclable material and in the “new world” we live in now, we will continue to order and have goods shipped to us in larger quantities and more frequently.
The 3/4 of plastic waste, mostly in the ocean, is made by Asian countries. Even if we will stop using plastic completely, it will not change our situation due to growing countries that dont have the capital to recycle properly.
everyone being forced to use the ecovative design design patents, if they want to persue the styrofoam technology, already seems like a massive issue if you want it to ever be competitive with plastic. the issue I'm noticing is that everyone wants to *feel good* about eco products, but not concern themselves with the issues of the industry's own creation
It has always been about the Feel-good, a few procedures that happen to be cost-effective and beneficial for both companies can also be construed as environmental care are retrofitted as such One example being companies getting your used network cables from demolition and renovations and giving you credits for new products, if you meet a certain threshold they can emit a "friend of nature" certificate so both of you can pat each other on the back even though this is a profitable transaction for both sides and looking good to the public eye is just the cherry on the top
When you mentioned housing, my first thought was my house would be growing mushrooms due to the wet environment I live in. I'm both glad to know that the material is already dead, and disappointed I wouldn't get a free crop of mushrooms :)
Growing your own mushrooms is ridiculously easy in certain locals. I've got a tray I harvest a half dozen from every day. Just replace the organic fertilizer every year and you can keep eating the same mushrooms (an no, it doesn't have to be manure. There are plant waste fertilizers out there.). Just has to be not to hot, not too dry, and not too wet. Best of all, you can grow them out of sunlight. It might just be me, but they also seem to grow best in quiet. Not sure if that's a factor or not. I have mine in a basement garden I maintain with hydroponics, but the mushroom tray was long before I put in the hydro system.
@@Anjiwee12 Soooo yes and no. Remember how it has to be not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, and not too dry? It takes a bit of effort to keep it in the sweet spot. I use four thermometers and four moisture sensors to keep the tray stable. But once you find it and the mat is established, it's pretty regular. Depends on what kind of mushrooms you grow too. There's some more exotic varieties you can grow on logs and the like with a more nutty flavor. I grow cremimis. I know some folks that try to grow shitake but they're a lot more fussy. There's tons of variety. It's just making a nice stable place for the mushroom of your choice. OH! One other warning. When you're making your bed, keep it very clean. An environment good for mushrooms is also good for other fungi, namely mold. You want to keep the bed itself clean and as moisture free as possible.
@@David13ushey When you were giving your last warning, I thought for a moment that you meant the bead you _sleep_ in, not the bed you _grow mushrooms in._ I was willing to accept that too, as I thought " Yeah that makes sense, if one disperses spores before you can prune it you don't want mushrooms growing on your bed" It was only after I reread it twice I understood
It's hard to start up. When demand is low, the economies of scale make it really expensive compared to plastic-based materials. Also, oil gets a lot of subsidies from federal gov'ts around the world--makes the marketplace unfair to any product competing with plastic.
if lets say, China, India, the US, or just the entirety of Southeast Asia, had there governments fund people enough to make these sorta stuff... then we would be able to massively produce this to wonder glory
Because whenever there is a new discovery it means nothing due to pre existing infrastructure. New tech means they have to update their multi-decade old processes and that worries insecure businessmen and women since they are worried about making max profits at every opportunity and their fragile go hangs on the thread of money made that day.
The journey from development to mass production takes time, especially an entirely novel technology with no similar equivalencies to serve as reference.
@@soep19 Fungal organisms have a lot of oddities and wide potential applications. Since there's a fungus in Chernobyl that 'eats' the radiation, a fungus able to utilize plastic for its bioprocesses does not surprise me at all.
That is amazing. I wanted to use mycelium in an environmental architecture competition in my school but I didn’t really understand it thank you for clarifying things in simple way.
Every one of these videos gives me an "I want it now" reaction. The possibilities exposed by new research are endless, but take a long time to come to market and become widely accepted.
The biggest issue is that all the plastic manufacturing machines are already built. Even if a new product came out that was ridiculously perfect in every way, but incompatible with current injection molding, we'd still see it take decades for the market to migrate. They aren't going to throw away working machines until they are no longer profitable to operate.
@@Beakerbite that's where government should come in, enforce measures about leaving plastic behind and even give subsides to companies that need them for the change of infrastructure. But they won't do that because they don't give a damn and they are all corrupt from top to bottom.
Product cycle times keep getting shorter and shorter as computer modeling and 3D-Printing bring down development times and costs. China just introduced a wafer-sized processor that is essentially an entire data-center on a single piece of silicon -- ONE TRILLION transistors on a single chip... That is the equivalent of 1,000 PC's on a disk the size of a large pizza... Stack ten thousand of those, and you have more processing power than exists on the entire planet. With that kind of computing power, you could model a thousand generations of product development before you build your first prototype. In just a few years, you can skip the awkward stumbling and develop an optimized product in the same time it takes to build a prototype today.
@@Beakerbite The NSW govt in Australia wants to ban all disposable plastics and if all countries did that the plastics factories would be forced to abandon their machines or convert them somehow (when it comes to disposable plastic shit).
This technology is so simple ! Imagine how the world would have looked like if someone discovered this before plastics Edit: I did not mean to say that this was superior to plastics in every way, just that if we knew of this sooner, we could have had a good alternative to plastics decades, maybe even centuries sooner, as the production of such a material would not require the advanced knowledge in chemistry as the production of plastic would. Im not saying its better than plastics, its not, as it is only aplicable in a few things, all I am saying is that if this was discovered, lets say by accident, in the 17th century, it could have started a completely new era.
not that different. We'd still be using plastics, because this can't replace all plastics. This has it's place, like replacing styroform packaging, but many other things you wouldn't want to be made of this. Also, you can make plastic stuff much quicker, so companies would still have preferred using plastics.
We proposed this to our research adviser but they rejected our proposal because it's "impossible". When this tech conquers the industry I'll be sure to be back at their office and slap them with newspapers covering this.
not great, since its far slower and more expensive to manufacture, and it rots. it's also not transparent, pretty much definitely considerably weaker than plastic, is'nt waterproof, probably has a funny smell to it since it is essentially dead rotting plant matter, it would make anything it is packaged with wet and slimy as its a mycillium, would be full of bugs since it's a weave rather than a solid object, and it pretty much just not fit for purpose at all. its the same as all of these "saving the planet" ideas. sounds nice...totally impractical and doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
I think it’s a good idea, but it’s a little too rare. Mushroom Islands are ultra rare, often with only one or two within even 10 thousand kilometers of spawn. On top of that, the yield is low from these, as the islands certainly aren’t big enough to provide the amount we’d need. I suppose you could go through the nether and use nylium, but there’s no telling if it’s even near the same quality.
Dude have you even heard of a bone meal? You can make lots of that island with bone meal and to make things more interesting, you can have unlimited bone meal with a specific farm.
As with most new solutions, the real question is "is it competitive at scale?" Doesn't matter how good the product is, if potential customers can't access it due to supply shortfalls.
@@inventiveowl395 Did it not seem odd to you he only said, "price competitive" instead of giving an actual price comparison? If it was really that small of a difference he would have given an actual price, instead of dancing around it. Until this product becomes cheaper than the current stuff it's going no where. You're only going to see mycelium packaging for high end products.
@@WopSalad Yeah it only costs about half a cent to make a bottle of plastic while it probably cost one to $5 to make this mycelium thing So it's not price competitive at all
The slow manufacturing process likely means that the products are not cost competitive with ordinary plastic products, however, if the costs of plastic products are taken in total to include the environmental impact costs then mycelium products might actually be cheaper.
@@ismailnyeyusof3520 ah, yes. Because billionaire CEOs often put the environment before profit. Nothing against those CEOs, that's their choice and at the end of the day probably the choice I'd make in their situation.
Sounds like a good idea to have everything be made out of biodegradable products. I cant wait for my TV and my sofa to disintegrate! I might as well start a bio-engineered product company, because I will make trillions of off planned obsolescence.
Great presentation. I remember doing some research on these products back in college to test their susceptibility to termite damage. Interesting to see this industry becoming more mainstream.
@@CrispyApplJackz Termites would eat into them but overall held up pretty well. Especially when compared to the control which was pine wood. It did seem that if the environment was too wet they were quite susceptible to having mold grow that the wood did not have an issue with. this was a while ago so my memory on all the findings might not be perfect.
There's actually a fungi that is a death sentence for termites. They have been busy as of late turning this fungi's into pest control for other bugs that are useless and bothersome to humans. Mushrooms are the future!!!
@@socalpotato Possibly but I was simply testing the base material so they had a control line to reference. I do not know if they continued with the research and I don't remember the companies name so I can't look it up either.
How do they ensure the complete removal of any spores? As someone on immunosuppressants, I've been specifically told to stay clear of fungus in particular if it could still be in a living state, or even if the fungus itself is dead, if there might be any spores still alive.
Maybe the heating process also kills off spores, although from the video, they’re transporting these blocks pretty openly, I wonder how much spores end up in an uncontrolled state. Do you think the dead fungi serve also serve as a new ground for spores to grow in?
The problem with fungus is that there are so many known mycotoxins and likely even more unknown mycotoxins. For instance, the some Fusarium species are used in fake meat products, but I believe most species in the same genus are known to have harmful mycotoxins. Aflatoxins (produced by Aspergillosis species) are known to be toxic to liver cells and are heavily correlated with cancer and liver cirrhosis. The point is, different species and genus of fungi produce all kinds of different chemicals that we have no idea how they effect the body. I'm not saying fungi based plastics wouldn't be better than petroleum based plastics which probably have an effect on the endocrine system. The industrial uses for fungi seem pretty cool, but I would use caution when using fungi for packaging food or water. I am not an expert, but I took a few mycology classes in college. There is so much we don't know and so many undiscovered species. I think caution is warranted for packaging food. If someone knows more please comment.
thanks for this. It's so easy to watch a cool video and be like "YES ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!!!" but it's good to get a non-pessimistic reality check to remember that it's more complicated. That said, In the age of amazon, though, _just_ the application as a shipping material is exciting. I helped a friend unpack a wayfair couch last year and dear god...i felt like the hole in the ozone was opening directly over their house.
I'm all in for this stuff. Clothing/wearables-wise, mycelium might help cut-down on waste in the clothing industry through constant manufacture of shoes, and the like. My hope is that shoe companies will stop endlessly pumping out new shoes that might never be worn, and realize they can still have a decent flow of income by selling replacement soles and other components that often drive people to buy new shoes, effectively making shoe repairs more affordable yet profitable. We already have algae foam, so it's about time mycelium steps into the spotlight.
@@freddybell8328 This isn't true for all customers though, right? I know personally, after I've found a shoe/boot that I like, I'll go back and buy that same model again and again. I guess it helps that those styles are seen as classics. I mean, its either that or I don't really care too much about looking very stylish.
It's the people who go and buy the latest fashion even if their old stuff is still fine. Try telling people they shouldn't buy so many shoes, especially to women who really like shoes, they really won't like it. These mycelium shoes won't last very long either.
@@freddybell8328 Maybe people would replace normal shoes, but being able to cheaply repair actual working shoes would be great. Most people don't wear steel toe shoes or kitchen shoes for style. They wear them because they serve a purpose often job related. Some jobs wear out shoes rather fast.
@@metroboonk5961 everything that is living feels pain. What you gotta learn is what evils are you willing to risk. Their death aren’t in vain and help us tremendously. This is the Way
I could feel my faith in humanity restore as I watched this video. A smile grew across my face as I continued to watch. As a biochem student I could not be happier with this technology. I hope we see this tech become normal across the world.
@@userurirhhrududjd exactly! There has been recent studies over the years of scientists making cement with microorganisms. Like imagine you driving on a road of cement that secretly has billions, probably trillions of microorganisms that are feeding off of Co2 instead of spitting it out! Like dont even lie that sounds fuckin cool
these innovations are a great step forward, but i honestly dont think we're gonna put a single dent in the behemoth plastic industry unless we change our economic policies. plastic is just so profitable the downsides are incomparable.
you say a little extra, but the last time (about 8 years ago) I saw this technology, you were looking at 30x the amount. You are already paying about £10 for the packaging for your £300 TV, do you want to pay more for the packaging for your TV than for you TV? And also Polymer packaging for that TV can be produced and packed in hours, vs the week it takes to just grow the mycelium. Time is what kills this for most people. Some smaller companies (notice how almost everything packed was expensive wine) are OK with it, but the price for 3million TV packs, it might be cheaper for that company to invest in a waste return scheme where they collect the packaging after delivery.
@@rjc0234 bud, I said a little extra because I ment I'd be willing to spend a little extra and not alot extra. If it's alot extra I'd opt for a standard packed item given the option.
I love the fact you include economic factors in your videos. It provides a realistic hope as things become cheaper, more cost effective etc. Most modern products we commonly use every day have become thousands of percent (percents?) cheaper overtime. Most things you cover are more expensive and more complicated, but within the next 20-50 years, I can see a lot of the products/concepts you cover becoming mainstream because of their cost effectiveness.
A young fellow tested polystyrene as a food for several organisms and found a worm that eats and digests polystyrene for food, and thrives on it. We should be pushing that technology too.
@@blueturborider That word non-recyclable is a misnomer -- It is not PROFITABLY recyclable... Matter is made of energy, which can neither b created nor destroyed, only converted to another form... The energy required to break the chemical bonds and then combine them with something else to make it stable and non-toxic costs more than the final product is worth. Everything is recyclable, not everything can be recycled PROFITABLY.
@@blueturborider if it turns to antifreeze it is just molecules composed of Carbon and Hydrogen or Hydrogen and Oxygen, which then can be broken apart with energy.
My point is that you can't reduce anti freeze ( if you can I don't if can and after reading the comments under I wonder how energy efficient that is) other point is that I don't think you can reuse. I might be wrong
This all sounds amazing and I hope it is ultimately successful. I also hope there isn't a second wave of eating tide pods, which would take the form of kids eating their mycelium shoes.
I wish companies just replaced plastics for this as much as possible, without asking and without us having to do shit. Just like they replaced previous materials without asking. Down 100% with this. Mycelium all the way baby!
@@mave2789 Exactly. Humanity is so focused on money that they don't stop to look at how they earn it. We destroy our planet, pollute our atmosphere, all for a piece of paper that is only worth something beacuse a group of people decided so.
Considering it's biodegradable, I'd have some concerns using it as a permanent building material, but certainly it's perfect for replacing single use plastics. Although for building, it might be great for short term pavilions -- grow a small building in a week, and a few months later it's just dirt, and if it's in a forest, no need to even remove it!
@@DoctorX17 maybe I missed it but I didn’t see the video say it turned into dirt in 45 days? The only issue with it as a building structure, is that it isn’t very strong compared to wood or concrete.
More like Deep Dwarf crafting. Remember that elves hate you harvesting cave mushrooms for "wood", too. unless you just mean the "here's a mold to have it grow to shape" bit.
I think its interesting how we discovered plastic before the mycelium plastic. Shows how little we payed attention to funguses scientifically, and to nature.
@@tonytwinkletoes3149 when the game came out initially it was id say a solid 8/10 for zombie games. Had a better orgin for zombies at least, instead of a virus, something that actually can potentially happen in real life.
@@fritzdeuces Isn't the thing with patenting tho if you don't somebody else will? Not to mention different laws in different countries. You could effectively be locked out of your own product. It's not the patents that are bad, it's how they are used.
@@johnnyllooddte3415 Maybe there was none for a short time except for the people producing that garbage. But for a long time the downsides has just been growing. This can't take over too soon.
Hmm... the few I can think of... how often do you need to replace your current insulation compared to this. Another would be possible allergy. Time, it takes seconds to make injection molded plastic compared to a week for this. None of these things say NOT to keep going, I love this idea. But we can't be so blinded byt the benefits that we ignore the flaws... thats exactly what got us to the point we're at.
I'm happy to see the promise of fungal replacements for plastics. In the meantime, plastic waste should mostly be burnt for energy rather than recycled, in most cases, though cracking it down to some kind of diesel fuel is probably worth considering too. It is incorrect to say that burning plastic produces toxins as this generally applies to open burning in uncontrolled conditions. In a properly managed combustion system it burns cleanly and you can add further steps to processing flue gases to make sure that nothing bad gets into the atmosphere. As long as we are burning virgin petroleum for fuel it seems irrational not to burn plastic waste - either way we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere but if you make the oil into plastic first you get to do something useful with it before you turn it into energy.
A suggestion we practice in this home right now... I burn all the plastic we buy in the fireplace, I never put it in the bin. I've been doing that for 20 years now, as soon as I realized how much energy it contains, and how much was used to make it in the first place.
@@mickelodiansurname9578 I actually don't think that's a good idea. In uncontrolled conditions burning plastic can produce some fierce toxins that simply should not be released into either the local or global environment.
@@mickelodiansurname9578 I am terrified to think of the toxins you've breathed in doing that. You've also sent them out into the air for your neighbors to breathe. Please stop!
Idk how effective mushrooms are at doing this but there are mushrooms and worms that can eat plastic. From my pov, seems better to have them take care of that rather than burn plastic
I’d like to see mycelium coffee cups. People have moved from polystyrene ones to paper cups, but the lamination and treatment required to make paper cups that don’t immediately collapse and drench your hands in boiling hot coffee make them as much an environmental disaster as polystyrene. Perhaps more, because in many places you can’t actually recycle paper cups as you would other paper and cardboard, so they end up contaminating recyclable waste, while polystyrene cups always ends up in discarded waste, never contaminating recycling loads.
@@ChaosSwissroIl personally I keep a travel mug in my backpack. I don't always have my backpack, and would like a more sustainable solution when I want a cup of tea and can't spare the time to stop and have it in a normal mug. All I know for sure is paper cups are not that solution. Polystyrene has its problems, and is definitely worse, but it shouldn't be this close a call. I'll take a mycelium cup any day over both.
@@ChaosSwissroIl I guess it's fine, if you don't count the emissions in producing it, or the complete lack of biodegradability, or the source of the petrochemical it's made of.
@@ChaosSwissroIl The problem with plastics isn't the sustainability of production, but the sustainability of disposal. We either burn that shit, releasing all kinds of nasty shit into the atmosphere, or just leave it lying around where it could take 100s of years to slowly degrade. Mycelium on the other hand would either burn up almost entirely into CO², adding only as much back into the atmosphere as was used in the production of the material itself (growing the biowaste and mycelium for the material), or just going straight back to the earth in less than a month. You completely missed the point on production as well, if existing mycelium replacements already vastly outperform their polymer counterparts as noted in the video, then there's no reason to keep going with plastics on that front too.
There’s a place close to my hometown called Mushroom Mountain. They’ve been researching and creating construction materials with mycelium like cinder blocks and insulation. My biology class took a field trip there and it was probably the coolest thing I’ve seen.
Idk how you can answer my curiosity as to where it is without doxxing yourself/family but it'd be pretty cool if ya could. Edit: didn't realize that you named it in the title, found it.
There is another alternative that uses recaptured CO2 from the air fed to water based algae that then produce a material that can be used to produce a plastic alternative with most of the same properties that can be used to produce the same sort of products and biodegrades within a few years. A great alternative for disposable items such as straws, shopping bags, disposable cutlery.
I think that for at least 10 years I've been watching countless videos of multiple things and technologies that were coming to ease the burden of our civilization on the environment, but still I've seen very little real implementation. It looks as though the ideas are great and plausible, everything ends up being just experimental good intentions.
@@OreganoParsley I do not expect everyone to give a damn; but many folk who are concerned about the future of the family unit and our Nation do give a damn. Families are the building blocks of a strong, productive, resourceful Nation. Destroy the family....destroy the nation. Amazon donates millions to charities that work to undermine and destroy the American family
@@VaxtorT you need to be in the right place with the right audience and in the right time to be able to convince anyone, and the TH-cam comment section isn't the place for that, not saying that what you're saying doesn't matter but that this isn't the greatest place for that, it just looks out of place.
@@bitraboj722 I cannot help it. It is so disturbing to see so many who are so thoroughly indoctrinated by the the mainstream narrative. Perhaps commenting on you tube is not the best place.....but it is presently the only forum I have since being paralyzed a few years ago.
I really dislike the amount of power Amazon has, but if they were to use this technology I really think we would see almost every other company follow suit which would reduce plastic waste by crazy amounts! Also acoustic insulation is something that’s often overlooked so thank you for looking into that! I feel like noise is a big issue in large cities, not only because of the amount of sounds happening, but because I imagine sounds bounce off of the buildings and concrete. By building stuff out of these materials we could reduce noise pollution too!
I loved their application of cardboard tape. Now i use it too. Its much easier to work with than standard plastic tape because it doesnt stick to itself as much.
I do not always agree with some of your statements, but I very much appreciate your stating both sides of the tech issues. Because you do that, your videos are enjoyable and thought provoking. Thank you for giving us information we can use to form our own ideas.
I'd be more than happy to use mycelium insulation, seems like a cool application, though we'd have to see if due to the heat and moisture it may degrade in the walls. I remember reading or watching something about mycelium bricks where they are made dormant but can be reactivated to bind the individual bricks together into one structure and then made dormant again. Seems like a great application. Or imagine growing the mycelium in the wall cavity on site and then neutralizing it. Perfectly sealed cavity with the insulation bonded to the studs. May even act as an air barrier.
For packaging that seems like a plausible win. Shoes, building materials and wearables? Yeah I don't think those will have legs, how durable would something like that even be for a shoe.
@@M33f3r I dunno man if it didn't have a lifespan comparable to regular shoes it wouldn't be advertised. I looked it up and they're supposed to last around 10 years.
@@nathansealy1354 And let's be honest, there's a lot people who changes sneakers every year for pure fashion, so longevity will never be an issue for them
@Future Pants Which is why I think sneakers are ridiculously overpriced. For the premium I pay for branded sneakers, I could buy a really good pair (or more) of boots which will last me a decade.
I learned about Ecovative when they did a proof-of-concept tiny house that used mycelium as insulation. I was sad that they never went further with the idea, but at least they continued exploring other uses. I am hoping to build an earth ship style house using rammed earth walls (not a fan of the tire walls) and mycelium insulation.
Btw no idea why people think meat causes GW, its got more to do with food waste than anything. In otherwords if meat doesn't get thrown out (and plant matter releases a lot of CO2 when it dies) So not sure if mycellium has less of a carbon impact than wheat and grain.
@@fredflintstone4715 I am not sure its actual value, but if I were to hazard I guess, I would say slightly below traditional materials like fiberglass. What I am thinking of doing is 9 inches of rammed earth, 24 inches of mycelium grown on a straw based medium, and then another 9 inches of rammed earth for the outer wall. It should easily out perform any traditional 12 inch thick wall. My only concern is if the mycelium can penetrate through the rammed earth and get into the house. Not sure if there are any good ways to kill it off to prevent that...
@@cartoonhanks1708 Well, in spite of the embarrassment of the Green New Deal, it is true that livestock release methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. Also, livestock is very inefficient from an energy in to calories out perspective. I don't know the exact numbers, but if you fed the plants directly to people rather than to livestock, you are supposed to be able to feed 4 or 5 people off the plantstock necessary to feed one person on meat. Of course, that does not account for the high protein content and trace nutrients you can get from meat that you don't get from plants. I personally believe a mixed but balanced diet is best (not an expert, just my opinion). I doubt that mycelium insulation is any good for carbon sequestration, but I like the idea because it is a lot safer than fiberglass insulation. Hopefully cheaper too, but I am not as confident about that.
@@cartoonhanks1708 People think meat causes global warming because cows that eat primarily grain do produce excess methane. It's a solvable problem for sure (alternative-- albeit more expensive-- feed is one option) but the methane they produce isn't an insignificant amount.
Interestingly, wasn't it discovered that some fungus can aid in breaking down plastics faster? Wouldn't that be wonderful-mycelium replacing plastic while also safely disposing it?
There is a book anticipating this!! Thank you for this video. In 2019 a French medium wrote about how is most likely gonna be life on earth in about a hundred years. One of the many things he explained is that buildings were gonna be made of a material that is made of fungus and some metals, with incredible properties like self repairing and reactive to the environment. Seemingly we won't need to wait a hundred years for that. I'm so excited!! (Other advantages will be the reciclability of buildings once not in use and that they are biocompatible and thus more respectful with our own health when being inside).
I'm curious as to whether the fungus based plastics and other applications would trigger mushroom allergies? I know someone deathly allergic to mushrooms, so would she just be unable to use these? Great video, vids like these fill me with hope for our ability to fix the world!
I guess it all depends on what a person allergic to mushrooms is allergic to. For example, "allergy to cats" it's due (in most cases) to a compound in the saliva of cats, not to cat hair (cat hair just contains this compound due to cats grooming themselves with their tongue). So by genetically engineering a cat that does not produce that compound, you get cats that don't produce allergies. This would be the same: there would need to be a research on what compound exactly triggers the shroom allergy, and then see if the compound remains there after thermal treatment (since it might be present only while the mycelium is alive, or it could degrade at high temperatures). And if it's there, see if mycelium can be modified as to not produce such compund (which should bedoable, as long as that compound is not essential for the mycelium to live or grow)
Good point. I would imagine that the treatment and the spray they coat it with would prevent spores/antigens from floating around the environment. The presenter is a bit disingenuous. The cost for shroom packaging is almost 2x more than styrofoam. We are 10 years too early for this to be used as packaging
There are people who are deathly allergic to pvc, bpa and other plastic leachate/biproducts. I worked with a woman who is so sensitive/allergic to plastics that she has her allergies tattooed on the under side of one of her forearms AND she can't touch, let alone consume, anything that comes into contact with plastic utensils even if it was a contact lasting mere seconds - otherwise she goes into severe anaphylaxis which requires a scary trip to the ER. So, aside from a handful of metals, there's going to be people who are allergic to any material out there which does NOT belittle your friend's allergy. It is a very important concern, like my ex-coworker's plastic allergies. My guess is that it depends on what exactly she is allergic to in mushrooms. Is it something that a fungus excretes while it's alive? Does that substance break down after the micillium dies? Is it a vital structural component of the micellium? I suppose your friend would have to make adjustments (avoid micellium products) in their life like anybody else who suffers from various allergies. 🤔
I'm down for using mycelium to make packaging materials as a lot of that gets used every day and does not get re-used. HOWEVER using mycelium in a house. Might as well put a sign in your front lawn that says "This house was made with ECO-Friendly Products To speed up the rate it decomposes So you Have to buy a new one in 40 years." My grandmas house was made with "NON-ECO-Friendly" materials when my grandma was in her 20s and most of the stone that was used in the chimney and basement is pretty much rubble.
I'd love to see large scale inoculation of landfills with some sort of fungi that could more efficiently and thoroughly breakdown all the waste that would otherwise not decompose, such as plastics and harmful chemicals. Is anyone working on this and specifically targeting landfills? I know Paul Stamets did an experiment on an oil spill, but I think it would be very beneficial if we could more safely and swiftly biodegrade our landfills as well.
@@ChaosSwissroIl First, the mycelium decomposes about twice as fast, and second, how is this a scam? It is only slightly more expensive than Styrofoam and much more eco-friendly.
Oh soon enough someone will come up with a thousand reasons Mycelium farming is destroying the planet and and make a lucrative career out of a 501 nonprofit against it.
I'm having a hard time reconciling the biodegradability of this substance with longevity. If the stuff breaks down quickly, how can it be used in products that should last for months or years?
Think of it like wood. Properly cared for and used it can last for years. Same for this. Keep it dry and use as intended it will last for a long time. Compost it and it'll break down in a month or two.
Wood is more versatile. It sounds like there are many different kinds of ways they are making the fungus material, and right now it seems like it's limited to only be able to not do much with the fungus material other then what was intended. Maybe they figure out how to make it better, but you're sooner are going to have a wood house survive 100 years, then a mushroom house. I think it would be a great plastic replacement, but I don't think it will be something you can be rough with, like you can with wood, and certain plastics.
@@WhynotMinot How long will Styrofoam insulation in a wooden house last* and what is it reactive chemical off gassing half life ? *At the frist remodeling much of will go to land fill
@@mittnival5562My house I don't think uses Styrofoam insulation, it has a bunch of fiber glass. There are definitely pros to having various things made out of mycelium, but I think longevity isn't going to be very high on mycelium stuff. It's still early in development though.
Oil companies are hanging on for dear life. In my area, an oil company sued Netflix for making the oil industry sound bad for the environment (all the show did was state facts)
Loooool if stating factual information makes a company feel bad, maybe they should change their practices. These industries say they'll go green by 20XX, but that in itself is almost a paradox. Oil companies going green? The only green they are interested in is that cash money 😂
I mean, I wouldn't say they're "hanging on for dear life", since oil-based products are still more prevalent and cheap than most of the alternatives save for a few specific cases. It's going to be a few years until we see widespread mycelium foam usage, let alone replacement for things like gasoline or rubber.
Out of curiosity, would your area happen to be Alberta, Canada? I ask because our gov has sued Netflix for a movie that depicted the oil industry in a mildly negative light
@@bojackhorseman4176 gasoline will be become obsolete in the future sadly. Just as much as combustion engines, because of the Electric Vehicles hype. I say sadly because there is a way to make "synthetic" gasoline. By using hydrogen combined with carbon, you can get the fuel, in an even more pure form than otherwise. Porsche is studying exactly that and the aim would be to use the CO2 out of the air to produce these so called E-Fuels. Quite expensive to make tho. And rubber? Again, E-fuels do the trick here. Not quite, but the same principle applies as gasoline, rubber, wax and all plastics are somewhat comprised of carbohydrates, that can be produced in the same way that E-fuels can be produced. But plastics... ye we need the stuff from this video for that.
Matt, this was a great video. This news gives us hope for a greener future. This is also something for us all to invest in and support. Great topic and coverage.
So what do think? Any uses I missed? Would you want to live in a mycelium insulated home? And thanks to Curiosity Stream ... use the code "Undecided" to get CuriosityStream for less than $15 a year! curiositystream.com/Undecided.
Also, be sure to check out The Future of Solid State Wind Energy - No More Blades: th-cam.com/video/nNp21zTeCDc/w-d-xo.html
I was thinking about you will upload your video today... And you just did this... 😊😊😊
the concern is its biodegradability...you dont want to buy shoes or houses that degraded after few weeks...it definitely works great as a single use product/packaging..though, it has potentials
Mycelium should be more widespread! We should have stopped the use of plastic completely and switched over to something like mycelium. It is so much better for the environment and for our own health, it seems nothing but logical to use biodegradable alternatives to polymers. The societal lag causing old habits to die hard will most likely be humanity's downfall. The lack of federal drive to take initiative on issues such as this is what is holding humanity back.
OMG, that is a cheap cost for knowledge!
would you use the mushrooms aka mycelia
Even if it ONLY replaces plastics in packaging that’ll be an enormous win.
Sad thing is corporate oil companies all over the world doesn't agree. Because their oil by products after fuel production is processed into non-biodegradable plastics. Which won a Nobel peace prize for making plastics possible from oil by products.
@@Niggurath-n4h hmm so if they dont make plastics with it they just dump it?
@@TeenyTinyDevil they can put it back where they dig it or at least process them into a more suitainable products. Remember making it into plastics is just a temporary solutions of delaying the inevitable. All outcomes so far lead to more trash and unsustainable to the environment. Sadly people seems to ignore this cycle.
Amazon boxes, the filler material, and clear bubble product packaging. That would cut plastic use in half easily.
@Park Justin yeah. Hence my comment.
Is this another one of those miracle implements that is waved in our faces, EVERYONE says YES, and then we never see it again?
Put your money where your mouth is. Insulate your house with it, get rid of plastics.
Yes!
Well according to this there are already 4 companies doing it. So maybe it will keep going. And as I understand it you need oil to make plastic. And we are running out of oil. So this has the potential of filling at least part of the demand the end of oil will leave.
@@BiscuitFever my house is insulated with fiberglass, paper, and wood...
considering they're patented, it probably won't be popular for 15-25 years
So the forms for the mycelium to grow in, are they called mold molds? ..... or mould moulds in the UK?
Mycelium is Fungus ...so fungs or mushs
😂
Moulds are a different genus altogether.
Mush molds
@@richardgoldsmith7278 molds aren't a genus at all as far as I can tell. There are molds in all sorts of fungal taxonomic groups.
I remember proposing this concept to a friend of mine, they replied “Yeah but I don’t really want to eat off of dead mushrooms roots.” As if decomposed plant juice refined into plastic is better,
does the dude even know how bread is made
@@spacezeppeli7358 ahahahaha no
That poisons you with Microplastics
Frustration with potential late adopters of a technology may be frustrating, but we must convince people with evidence not verbal jabs. It is unintelligent to disregard reason, but it is unwise to simply write those people off as fools.
One thing like to mention here is...does the person who made plastic marketed it by saying hey..this is best to use not clothes...the positioning idea is very bad here..even though people started Caring about environments but its not 100% of world, we cant postitiotthese product in market daying this is good alternative to platic and its made of dead fungus ....no absolutely no, coat cutting is the key, if we go to business and deal directly with them no need for customer to know what its made and how, they just get it from market if other alternative is not presented
Lets hope finding a mushroom island isn't hard
The land of the Mushroom Cows conveniently named "Mooshrooms"
Did you know the largest living organism on earth is in fact a mushroom?
@@corynn.l5146 its.. it's a minecraft joke..
@@michamicha1433 he's just giving facts
Nylium and the stems of giant Nether fungi are technically mycelium, too.
I would love to one day look at "trash" on the beach, see a mycelium package on the water and know that it won't take long before it's not there anymore.
would you buy something in mycelium packaging over one witth plastic? even if it costs twice the price?
@@The1stHomosapien It really depends... but hopefully in the future the prices will change.
@@The1stHomosapien well, considering plastic packaging is really cheap, yes I would pay twice the amount.
Yeah enjoy the fungus spores in your intestines
@@Fenris2 On that note, enjoy the plastic too since you love eating containers so much
20 years from now, Pixar releases a movie about mushrooms having feelings
evolution would indicate that all of life is aware. That is how it forms adaptations to environment and stimuli, so it likely has feelings perhaps not as complex as ours but things alive happen to live. odd concept, so being more intune with life is a good thing. This product is good but understanding that we take life in order to live ours will help us reduce that amount of life shed.
Being connected with all things in life and not disconnected from our roles as Humans. We are care takers of this world. But we aren't caring for it real well. Or ourselves.
Super Mario World!!!
@@santosdr2 that’s not how evolution works lmao
@@YHWH-SHUA Okay. Feel free to explain it.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did have feelings, they are animal like, and all that mycelial network might be like a brain.
I would love to see some big companies adopt this as internal packaging for electronics like TVs and white goods. The polystyrene used for those is the definition of single use - moulded to one product, just to get it to the consumer safely. I would love to be able to put that on my compost heap when I recycle the box it came in.
I think a better Idea would be making it a legal requirement that any goods like this for sale must be built to last, come with service manuals and be easily serviced and repaired, not be subject to any tax and even be subsidised to stop the manufacturing and sales of cheap low quality goods that have minimal warranties and break as soon as it expires.
Using mycelium is just not currently feasable because the extra weight of mycelium compared to styrofoam would result in more fuel being used for transport, and the toxic fumes released into the environment from burning additional fuel is far worse than burying some styrofoam. When clean electric can be produced in excess and all vehicles run on electric then it will be worth it.
@@talibong9518 even if we make it built to last, technology is advancing at a pretty fast rate. TVs just a few years ago looked like clunky messes that displayed a magnitude lower of the pixels. Now they’re heading towards being smart. Imagine having a TV that’s still running the first version of android with hardware that doesn’t allow HDMI input. That’s what your TV is going to feel like in 10 years even if you can keep it in perfect condition. I think having something built to last will only work once we’ve plateaued with TV technology.
@@talibong9518 Corporations of the world will never make their products more durable/long lasting for one reason.
PROFIT
If we aren't replacing our phones every 18 months, or our cars every 3 to 5 years, their profits shrink and we all know it's a cardinal sin to interfere with the shareholders profits. . .Even if all they do is sit around in their mansions and make money doing nothing.
Amazon pushing for that would be huge.
Their huge fulfillment centers generate truly obscene metric shit-loads of plastic garbage, daily.
Nah I want to live in a biological engineered organism.
Plant a bunch of trees in a square. Grows the structure rapidly like how fast bamboo grows.
Put some spores onto it. Builds some walls. Following the tree path.
Have my computer made from human brain cells.
Forget to feed my computer enough protein. All the biological engineered structures combine into a intelligent super organism and consumes me. Making me a slave it controls to spread its seeds.
Looks like HermitCraft’s Mycelium Resistance had a plan all along.
turns out it was HEP who were destroying the environment after all
I was looking for a Minecraft comment lmao.
@@gabestr2077 press X : *same*
Grian will be so proud to know it's working.
grian will win
Imagine my motorcycle plastics being made out of mycelium
The mushvroom 🍄
BA DUM TSS!!
Damnit
Out.
@@Its_Pronounced_Heezee haha
No(´^-^)
...
I also just saw somewhere that many mushrooms can in fact digest plastics and still be edible.. But maybe we could use both mixed in with the wood chips to help start breaking down the over flowing plastics that don't get recycled and use it with this plastic fungus method. We are not only helping break down unused plastic, but also making a new product with waste plastics.. MUSHROOMS WHERE THE ANSWER ALL Along!
Bro from where I'm from mushrooms are always the answer. Fungi, such great fucking beings.
Paul Stamets uses fungus to clean up toxins and plastic.
I would happily live in a mycelium insulated home, wear mushroom leather and support businesses that used this packaging. Bring it on!
Just note that if you ever decide you sit on a lawn, for an extended period of time, you will germinate.
@@speway what is "germinate"?
@@roberine7241 It's a verb and one of the initial phases in the development of a a seed into maturity. It occurs just prior to root development. The context that I was using it in was a joke and in reply to the comment prior made by TurquoiseInk. It was just a bad joke. Have a great day!!
@@speway ah now I got it. thanks.
@@roberine7241 (Thumbs Up)
I’ll never get behind metal and paper alternatives to plastic items due to their high production energy costs. Sometimes as much as 500 times the pollution into the atmosphere. But this is an actual win win product. Hope it gains traction.
3 words
Mycelium 3-D Printer!
But can you drink a liquid from a recipent made of mushrooms?
@@freddynovember5842 printer? mmm idk if that would work, it grows into a mold it cant be placed in a pattern. Plus molding technology is hundreds of times more cheaper than 3d printing
i doubt that it will happen. Right now the only Mycelium-Based Technology is under an license, meaning, that other companies have to pay to use it. If they really wanted to help, they would've created a new license, where nobody can monopolize onto it, yet keep costs down.
It all comes down to companies being greedy instead of helpful. I am aware that creating things will cost stuff, yes, but somebody has to bite into the sour apple, or else things like this will just not be feasible, and people will just stay with Plastics instead.
Basically, to explain better, let's say, for example, 1Kg of Plastics is worth 50 cents in production, (Obviously not the actual costs, just examples), and Mycelium costs 20 cents in production. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well, yes and no. You're paying 20 cents to produce it, then you have to pay the company who is monopolizing it, which can easily be a good 60-70 Cents for each Kilogram, meaning, in reality, you're paying 80-90 Cents for 1Kg of Mycelium, compared to 50 Cents for 1Kg of Plastics. obviously companies will stay with Plastics instead because Economy. Money first, World second.
Anyone thats ever had to install or touch fiberglass insulation would probably say YES to this option.
Good point, it's really itchy
Idk, I HATE fiberglass but that stuff can last virtually forever. Idk about dead fungus. Seems vulnerable to getting eaten by animals, bacteria, and living fungi.
Its solved by washing in hot water, after you are done, if you have bare skin while working with this stuff... This is common knowledge for people that have been working with glasfiber insulation more than ones...
Anyway Rockwool is not glasfiber and not that problematic as example Glava that is glasfiber.
Also very flame resistant.
So there is already natural products for the glasfiber ones.
They fixed that. Modern insulation isn’t itchy anymore.
Big fax.
There are also mushrooms that can not only break plastic down into organic matter, they can survive solely on plastic in anaerobic conditions, making them ideal to use in oxygen poor landfills.
Speaking of foam, as a consumer, I *absolutely loathe* styrofoam with a passion (and that’s not even accounting for the environmental impacts). It makes such a massive mess and is impossible to break down. It can be super frustrating.
Acetone breaks it down super quick, leaving a blu-ish fluid that can be molded and reused...the product also takes up a LOT less space...about 20 to 1 with the Acetone able to be reused with a small amount of new fluid added. I have had minor successes with flet panels cut and assembled with either Acetone or EDC (ethylene dichloride)
superworms can turn it into organic matter.
@@stepcorngrumbleteats7683 Gasoline can also break it down. The resulting mixture is napalm.
@@Lydaw I thought you needed a starch in there as well for for thickness and stickyness
I work at target and I too loathe Styrofoam, especially the cheap stuff, it crumbles and gets EVERYWHERE!
This really feels like an underground technology.
I see what you did there.
Well played.
Polite golf clapping ensues.
Har, har!
***Jazz-clap***
soon the fruiting body will emerge
When you've been terraforming mountains using mycelium in Minecraft and want to justify it
Bro i got to this vid looking up mycelium building tips for mc
let’s start a resistance
It's about the principle
@@Kuria_zhaints And about sending Scar a message
@@Morningstar_37 correct
I love when ppl use bricks as an example of things that you can do with garbage. Its like if someone lost all his members and someone tell him: "well now you can be a door holder"
Use of this for packaging would be such a huge win for everyone. Most items we receive come with so much unrecyclable material and in the “new world” we live in now, we will continue to order and have goods shipped to us in larger quantities and more frequently.
it is a terrbile loss for people who get rich from plastics
The 3/4 of plastic waste, mostly in the ocean, is made by Asian countries.
Even if we will stop using plastic completely, it will not change our situation due to growing countries that dont have the capital to recycle properly.
@@Porabany Hey you're not allowed to say that. The narrative is that America does everything wrong
@@pilky_boooi thats the problem, they are going to push for the use of plastic. They will spread false information about the mushroom stuff
@@_R_R_R yeah I know
"There's mold in the walls" house buyer: "Great!"
The house is mold
And now I know that mold is a fungi. Thanks.
“Breaks down within 45 days underground…” Me who just used it to insulate my basement: 😳
@@josephb3147 and Britannica says you're wrong. Mold is a mycelium. www.britannica.com/science/mold-fungus
@@JohnSmith-ns6dp seriously what do they treat it with to prevent rot?
*falls over with new shoes
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm tripping on mushrooms!"
Hahahaha..... please don't hurt me.
😂
*hurts you*
I need your location now
You did a joke, haha, congratulations.
next 10 years : a bulletproof vest made out from mushroom myceliums
everyone being forced to use the ecovative design design patents, if they want to persue the styrofoam technology, already seems like a massive issue if you want it to ever be competitive with plastic. the issue I'm noticing is that everyone wants to *feel good* about eco products, but not concern themselves with the issues of the industry's own creation
It has always been about the Feel-good, a few procedures that happen to be cost-effective and beneficial for both companies can also be construed as environmental care are retrofitted as such
One example being companies getting your used network cables from demolition and renovations and giving you credits for new products, if you meet a certain threshold they can emit a "friend of nature" certificate so both of you can pat each other on the back even though this is a profitable transaction for both sides and looking good to the public eye is just the cherry on the top
Patents expire. True it takes years but it will happen then this stuff will be everywhere
When you mentioned housing, my first thought was my house would be growing mushrooms due to the wet environment I live in. I'm both glad to know that the material is already dead, and disappointed I wouldn't get a free crop of mushrooms :)
Growing your own mushrooms is ridiculously easy in certain locals. I've got a tray I harvest a half dozen from every day. Just replace the organic fertilizer every year and you can keep eating the same mushrooms (an no, it doesn't have to be manure. There are plant waste fertilizers out there.). Just has to be not to hot, not too dry, and not too wet. Best of all, you can grow them out of sunlight. It might just be me, but they also seem to grow best in quiet. Not sure if that's a factor or not. I have mine in a basement garden I maintain with hydroponics, but the mushroom tray was long before I put in the hydro system.
@@David13ushey Daaaaamn it’s that easy? I would be your neighbor and I’ll make a bunch of spaghetti for you.
@@Anjiwee12 Soooo yes and no. Remember how it has to be not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, and not too dry? It takes a bit of effort to keep it in the sweet spot. I use four thermometers and four moisture sensors to keep the tray stable. But once you find it and the mat is established, it's pretty regular. Depends on what kind of mushrooms you grow too. There's some more exotic varieties you can grow on logs and the like with a more nutty flavor. I grow cremimis. I know some folks that try to grow shitake but they're a lot more fussy. There's tons of variety. It's just making a nice stable place for the mushroom of your choice.
OH! One other warning. When you're making your bed, keep it very clean. An environment good for mushrooms is also good for other fungi, namely mold. You want to keep the bed itself clean and as moisture free as possible.
@@David13ushey When you were giving your last warning, I thought for a moment that you meant the bead you _sleep_ in, not the bed you _grow mushrooms in._
I was willing to accept that too, as I thought " Yeah that makes sense, if one disperses spores before you can prune it you don't want mushrooms growing on your bed"
It was only after I reread it twice I understood
Can I just grow the insulation right in my walls?
The fact that this technology was developed in 2006 and I'm just recently hearing about it it's kind of concerning.
It's hard to start up. When demand is low, the economies of scale make it really expensive compared to plastic-based materials. Also, oil gets a lot of subsidies from federal gov'ts around the world--makes the marketplace unfair to any product competing with plastic.
if lets say, China, India, the US, or just the entirety of Southeast Asia, had there governments fund people enough to make these sorta stuff... then we would be able to massively produce this to wonder glory
Big Plastic hates this one trick.
Because whenever there is a new discovery it means nothing due to pre existing infrastructure. New tech means they have to update their multi-decade old processes and that worries insecure businessmen and women since they are worried about making max profits at every opportunity and their fragile go hangs on the thread of money made that day.
The journey from development to mass production takes time, especially an entirely novel technology with no similar equivalencies to serve as reference.
Nobody asking the real question: can we eat the packaging?
Yes
You can eat styrofoam packaging too!
You can eat anything if you try hard enough
@@danielllanitogalvan5954 Yes
you can eat anything at least once
Having lived in Vietnam for some years, I have seen the plastic horrors of the South China Sea first hand. This is an amazing first step!
And there are several initiatives like Ocean Cleanup to undo the damage already been done.
As someone who was just researching the mushrooms that can eat a diet solely of plastic, thank you so much for this video.
w8 so mushroom can eat plastics?
@@soep19 Fungal organisms have a lot of oddities and wide potential applications. Since there's a fungus in Chernobyl that 'eats' the radiation, a fungus able to utilize plastic for its bioprocesses does not surprise me at all.
"It's about the principle" - Mycelium Resistance
I was wondering if anyone else watched this video because of hermitcraft season 7.
This made me giggle
TO SEND SCAR A MESSAGE!
I was waiting for this lol
Yes!
"Mycelium fungus" is like saying root plant or skin animal.
We do say root plant
There are non fruiting nonmycelium fungi, so this is an important distinction and completely correct.
I AM A SKIN HUMAN
@@ahorseofcourse7283 4 skin?
storing my food using human skin 😳
That is amazing. I wanted to use mycelium in an environmental architecture competition in my school but I didn’t really understand it thank you for clarifying things in simple way.
If that's the case, then Minecraft has a huge potential for new items
Especially since there’s three types of mycelium in the game.
@Random Things ok
Plastic block 🥵
@Random Things If you use hyphae planks in a build, and make it large, then it’s technically a mushroom mansion.
shroomite
Every one of these videos gives me an "I want it now" reaction. The possibilities exposed by new research are endless, but take a long time to come to market and become widely accepted.
The biggest issue is that all the plastic manufacturing machines are already built. Even if a new product came out that was ridiculously perfect in every way, but incompatible with current injection molding, we'd still see it take decades for the market to migrate. They aren't going to throw away working machines until they are no longer profitable to operate.
@@Beakerbite that's where government should come in, enforce measures about leaving plastic behind and even give subsides to companies that need them for the change of infrastructure. But they won't do that because they don't give a damn and they are all corrupt from top to bottom.
Product cycle times keep getting shorter and shorter as computer modeling and 3D-Printing bring down development times and costs. China just introduced a wafer-sized processor that is essentially an entire data-center on a single piece of silicon -- ONE TRILLION transistors on a single chip... That is the equivalent of 1,000 PC's on a disk the size of a large pizza... Stack ten thousand of those, and you have more processing power than exists on the entire planet. With that kind of computing power, you could model a thousand generations of product development before you build your first prototype. In just a few years, you can skip the awkward stumbling and develop an optimized product in the same time it takes to build a prototype today.
@@Beakerbite The NSW govt in Australia wants to ban all disposable plastics and if all countries did that the plastics factories would be forced to abandon their machines or convert them somehow (when it comes to disposable plastic shit).
Government can fix it, if it stops trying to give "free" things out and buying tanks
This technology is so simple ! Imagine how the world would have looked like if someone discovered this before plastics
Edit: I did not mean to say that this was superior to plastics in every way, just that if we knew of this sooner, we could have had a good alternative to plastics decades, maybe even centuries sooner, as the production of such a material would not require the advanced knowledge in chemistry as the production of plastic would. Im not saying its better than plastics, its not, as it is only aplicable in a few things, all I am saying is that if this was discovered, lets say by accident, in the 17th century, it could have started a completely new era.
All about that funding
what about capacity though? it takes a week to complete the process...too slow...
not that different. We'd still be using plastics, because this can't replace all plastics. This has it's place, like replacing styroform packaging, but many other things you wouldn't want to be made of this. Also, you can make plastic stuff much quicker, so companies would still have preferred using plastics.
We proposed this to our research adviser but they rejected our proposal because it's "impossible". When this tech conquers the industry I'll be sure to be back at their office and slap them with newspapers covering this.
not great, since its far slower and more expensive to manufacture, and it rots. it's also not transparent, pretty much definitely considerably weaker than plastic, is'nt waterproof, probably has a funny smell to it since it is essentially dead rotting plant matter, it would make anything it is packaged with wet and slimy as its a mycillium, would be full of bugs since it's a weave rather than a solid object, and it pretty much just not fit for purpose at all.
its the same as all of these "saving the planet" ideas. sounds nice...totally impractical and doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
I think it’s a good idea, but it’s a little too rare. Mushroom Islands are ultra rare, often with only one or two within even 10 thousand kilometers of spawn. On top of that, the yield is low from these, as the islands certainly aren’t big enough to provide the amount we’d need. I suppose you could go through the nether and use nylium, but there’s no telling if it’s even near the same quality.
goddammit, I had to google this to find out it was a minecraft reference. I am dumb
@@brukts3361 same my dude
Dude have you even heard of a bone meal? You can make lots of that island with bone meal and to make things more interesting, you can have unlimited bone meal with a specific farm.
As with most new solutions, the real question is "is it competitive at scale?"
Doesn't matter how good the product is, if potential customers can't access it due to supply shortfalls.
Did you watch the video? :D
@@inventiveowl395 Did it not seem odd to you he only said, "price competitive" instead of giving an actual price comparison? If it was really that small of a difference he would have given an actual price, instead of dancing around it. Until this product becomes cheaper than the current stuff it's going no where. You're only going to see mycelium packaging for high end products.
@@WopSalad Yeah it only costs about half a cent to make a bottle of plastic while it probably cost one to $5 to make this mycelium thing So it's not price competitive at all
The slow manufacturing process likely means that the products are not cost competitive with ordinary plastic products, however, if the costs of plastic products are taken in total to include the environmental impact costs then mycelium products might actually be cheaper.
@@ismailnyeyusof3520 ah, yes. Because billionaire CEOs often put the environment before profit. Nothing against those CEOs, that's their choice and at the end of the day probably the choice I'd make in their situation.
Sounds absolutely promising. The beginning of a new era where the technology is biological.
3 words
Mycelium 3-D Printer!
@@freddynovember5842 GENIUS
@@freddynovember5842 We need this
Sounds like a good idea to have everything be made out of biodegradable products. I cant wait for my TV and my sofa to disintegrate! I might as well start a bio-engineered product company, because I will make trillions of off planned obsolescence.
@@evil1st start a biodegradable propane and propane accessories store lol
Great presentation. I remember doing some research on these products back in college to test their susceptibility to termite damage. Interesting to see this industry becoming more mainstream.
@@CrispyApplJackz Termites would eat into them but overall held up pretty well. Especially when compared to the control which was pine wood. It did seem that if the environment was too wet they were quite susceptible to having mold grow that the wood did not have an issue with. this was a while ago so my memory on all the findings might not be perfect.
I was wondering how it holds up to termites so what's the answer please respond
There's actually a fungi that is a death sentence for termites. They have been busy as of late turning this fungi's into pest control for other bugs that are useless and bothersome to humans. Mushrooms are the future!!!
Surely some plant-based component can be mixed in which deters insects? Like lavender’s usefulness against garden annoyances.
@@socalpotato Possibly but I was simply testing the base material so they had a control line to reference. I do not know if they continued with the research and I don't remember the companies name so I can't look it up either.
Video: "Mycelium fungus can be used for computing circuits"
me: having resident evil village memories
mmmmmmmmmmm fungi
LOL right.
MOLDSSSS!
Oh shit, here we go again!
Subnautica flashbacks too
How do they ensure the complete removal of any spores? As someone on immunosuppressants, I've been specifically told to stay clear of fungus in particular if it could still be in a living state, or even if the fungus itself is dead, if there might be any spores still alive.
Maybe the heating process also kills off spores, although from the video, they’re transporting these blocks pretty openly, I wonder how much spores end up in an uncontrolled state. Do you think the dead fungi serve also serve as a new ground for spores to grow in?
@@NotHeitu Valid question there
Unless you're in a spacesuit, you are inhaling over 10k fungus spores every minute, fungus is something that's impossible to evade
The problem with fungus is that there are so many known mycotoxins and likely even more unknown mycotoxins. For instance, the some Fusarium species are used in fake meat products, but I believe most species in the same genus are known to have harmful mycotoxins. Aflatoxins (produced by Aspergillosis species) are known to be toxic to liver cells and are heavily correlated with cancer and liver cirrhosis. The point is, different species and genus of fungi produce all kinds of different chemicals that we have no idea how they effect the body.
I'm not saying fungi based plastics wouldn't be better than petroleum based plastics which probably have an effect on the endocrine system. The industrial uses for fungi seem pretty cool, but I would use caution when using fungi for packaging food or water.
I am not an expert, but I took a few mycology classes in college. There is so much we don't know and so many undiscovered species. I think caution is warranted for packaging food. If someone knows more please comment.
thanks for this. It's so easy to watch a cool video and be like "YES ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!!!" but it's good to get a non-pessimistic reality check to remember that it's more complicated. That said, In the age of amazon, though, _just_ the application as a shipping material is exciting. I helped a friend unpack a wayfair couch last year and dear god...i felt like the hole in the ozone was opening directly over their house.
I'm all in for this stuff. Clothing/wearables-wise, mycelium might help cut-down on waste in the clothing industry through constant manufacture of shoes, and the like. My hope is that shoe companies will stop endlessly pumping out new shoes that might never be worn, and realize they can still have a decent flow of income by selling replacement soles and other components that often drive people to buy new shoes, effectively making shoe repairs more affordable yet profitable. We already have algae foam, so it's about time mycelium steps into the spotlight.
Shoes respond to trends and trends change. People don't want to repair their ten year old pair of shoes that are no longer stylish.
@@freddybell8328 This isn't true for all customers though, right? I know personally, after I've found a shoe/boot that I like, I'll go back and buy that same model again and again. I guess it helps that those styles are seen as classics. I mean, its either that or I don't really care too much about looking very stylish.
It's the people who go and buy the latest fashion even if their old stuff is still fine. Try telling people they shouldn't buy so many shoes, especially to women who really like shoes, they really won't like it.
These mycelium shoes won't last very long either.
@@freddybell8328 Maybe people would replace normal shoes, but being able to cheaply repair actual working shoes would be great. Most people don't wear steel toe shoes or kitchen shoes for style. They wear them because they serve a purpose often job related. Some jobs wear out shoes rather fast.
Soles don't wear out like the bodies do, joggers usually rip
Fungivores be like: "It's free real estate"
Fungi have always been one of my favorite things. I love mushrooms. This makes me happy as it supports something I really like.
@@metalrain300 it really isnt you know
@@metalrain300 well it is but the only thing thats being helped is us not the mushrooms. Mushrooms can feel pain. Atleast theyll die for a good cause.
@@metroboonk5961 everything that is living feels pain. What you gotta learn is what evils are you willing to risk. Their death aren’t in vain and help us tremendously.
This is the Way
@@metalrain300 and not only us but countless other animals that are being affected by plastic
Hemp polymers for clear plastics the byproduct of which can be used for the base component to grow the Mycelium plastics.
I could feel my faith in humanity restore as I watched this video. A smile grew across my face as I continued to watch. As a biochem student I could not be happier with this technology. I hope we see this tech become normal across the world.
@okay that's true. Even tho there's so much shit out there, there are still people out there who are doing genuinely good things to help us.
@@userurirhhrududjd exactly! There has been recent studies over the years of scientists making cement with microorganisms. Like imagine you driving on a road of cement that secretly has billions, probably trillions of microorganisms that are feeding off of Co2 instead of spitting it out! Like dont even lie that sounds fuckin cool
Don't put faith in humans put faith in God everything man does fucks up everything
Don’t hold you breath. Notice we didn’t talk about scalability or cost at all.
All fun and games until a hitman from every plastic company shows up at the maker's door at once
Fast forward to 50 years and we're all gonna become druids.
Druid of the Mycelium
@@NatalieRath sounds badass honestly
Or tyrans)
It's-A me, Mario!
treants or fungoids from stelaris
Grian be like:
SPREAD THE SPORE
yes i was thinking this
Grain
ITS ABOUT THE PRINCIPLE
@@gerardprescilla3440 dont be a grammer nazi, he isnt even talking about grain. Grian is a person
@@Kilo-sz4ch who is this grain character
these innovations are a great step forward, but i honestly dont think we're gonna put a single dent in the behemoth plastic industry unless we change our economic policies. plastic is just so profitable the downsides are incomparable.
I'd pay a little extra if a company used this instead of normal packaging.
you say a little extra, but the last time (about 8 years ago) I saw this technology, you were looking at 30x the amount. You are already paying about £10 for the packaging for your £300 TV, do you want to pay more for the packaging for your TV than for you TV? And also Polymer packaging for that TV can be produced and packed in hours, vs the week it takes to just grow the mycelium. Time is what kills this for most people. Some smaller companies (notice how almost everything packed was expensive wine) are OK with it, but the price for 3million TV packs, it might be cheaper for that company to invest in a waste return scheme where they collect the packaging after delivery.
@@rjc0234 bud, I said a little extra because I ment I'd be willing to spend a little extra and not alot extra. If it's alot extra I'd opt for a standard packed item given the option.
@@gypsy_haas5869 that would be the best of both worlds if ya ask me.
Like, its cheaper than plastic right? So we would pay less i guess
@@epictoast6727 But this isn't "a little extra" this is a lot extra. You want a sustainable future you are going to have to pay for it.
I love the fact you include economic factors in your videos. It provides a realistic hope as things become cheaper, more cost effective etc. Most modern products we commonly use every day have become thousands of percent (percents?) cheaper overtime. Most things you cover are more expensive and more complicated, but within the next 20-50 years, I can see a lot of the products/concepts you cover becoming mainstream because of their cost effectiveness.
A young fellow tested polystyrene as a food for several organisms and found a worm that eats and digests polystyrene for food, and thrives on it. We should be pushing that technology too.
yeah, and the by-product of that was antifreeze which is also no recyclable and toxic
@@blueturborider That word non-recyclable is a misnomer -- It is not PROFITABLY recyclable... Matter is made of energy, which can neither b created nor destroyed, only converted to another form... The energy required to break the chemical bonds and then combine them with something else to make it stable and non-toxic costs more than the final product is worth. Everything is recyclable, not everything can be recycled PROFITABLY.
@@blueturborider if it turns to antifreeze it is just molecules composed of Carbon and Hydrogen or Hydrogen and Oxygen, which then can be broken apart with energy.
Another good thing to get rid of plastics is a fungus called Pestalotiopsis microspora that also converts plastics.
My point is that you can't reduce anti freeze ( if you can I don't if can and after reading the comments under I wonder how energy efficient that is) other point is that I don't think you can reuse. I might be wrong
This all sounds amazing and I hope it is ultimately successful. I also hope there isn't a second wave of eating tide pods, which would take the form of kids eating their mycelium shoes.
I wish companies just replaced plastics for this as much as possible, without asking and without us having to do shit. Just like they replaced previous materials without asking. Down 100% with this. Mycelium all the way baby!
It's all about the $$.
@@-Devy- it always was, and it will always be. Until the humanity ends itself
@@mave2789 Exactly. Humanity is so focused on money that they don't stop to look at how they earn it. We destroy our planet, pollute our atmosphere, all for a piece of paper that is only worth something beacuse a group of people decided so.
@@BenjamintYT Endless greed, in a limited world
Not to mention what we are doing to ourselves and other people during those processes
Warmly recommend the book Mycelium Running by Stamets
Entangled Life is pretty good too.
Yeah, with medical research he could have had a "sex-fecta."
That's exactly the book that I was going to recommend! Great read! 👍👍🍄🍄🍄🍄👍👍
As well as Radical Mycology by Peter McCoy
If there’s any one book to read, it’s Radical Mycology: it has everything in it.
I like wearing my mycelium hat to parties because it makes me a fungi
why
Why
i see what you did there
Appreciate your dad joke over there
Take your like and get out!
Currently doing research for an Interior Design class and we are focusing on sustainability and this was so helpful!
me, a hermitcraft audience, would expect something like mycelium vs grass
well we ALSO have seagrass as alternative to plastic,and its edible
Order from IG @Mycohenry33 and thank me later
Considering it's biodegradable, I'd have some concerns using it as a permanent building material, but certainly it's perfect for replacing single use plastics. Although for building, it might be great for short term pavilions -- grow a small building in a week, and a few months later it's just dirt, and if it's in a forest, no need to even remove it!
Wood is also biodegradable. Still make houses it of it
@@lampostsamurai2518 fair... Although wood doesn't turn to dirt in 45 days. Plus it's usually treated to increase strength and/or durability
I’d have concerns of rot and insect infestation if used as insulation. For that matter rodent infestation?
@@DoctorX17 Its like you didnt even watch the video. He explains how it can be used for construction
@@DoctorX17 maybe I missed it but I didn’t see the video say it turned into dirt in 45 days? The only issue with it as a building structure, is that it isn’t very strong compared to wood or concrete.
So, if anyone knows the game Dwarf Fortress: this is basically elf crafting
This sounds like some dnd underdark technology 🤣
More like Deep Dwarf crafting. Remember that elves hate you harvesting cave mushrooms for "wood", too. unless you just mean the "here's a mold to have it grow to shape" bit.
Which means we need to burn whoever came up with it
I refuse to use anything those filthy tree hugging cannibals do
@@KainYusanagi I think he meant the grow to shape bit.
Dude that game is fucking nuts...
I think its interesting how we discovered plastic before the mycelium plastic. Shows how little we payed attention to funguses scientifically, and to nature.
The Last of Us fans: "Oh no no no no"
otherwise promising technology!
Damn, better off start practicing now with the bow!
What fans?
@@vibongo me (-_-)/
@@vibongo i forgot it even existed for the simple fact it's a PS exclusive and let's be honest... It's not that great.. so these are valid facts
@@tonytwinkletoes3149 when the game came out initially it was id say a solid 8/10 for zombie games. Had a better orgin for zombies at least, instead of a virus, something that actually can potentially happen in real life.
I don't want more fungus in my shoes!
In all seriousness though, I'm so freaking hyped for this becoming mainstream!
“I'm willing to donate my friends, they won't take that much time to decompose.”
*Hold up*
Order from IG @Mycohenry33 and thank me later
imagine buying a cellphone case made out of this fungus, but wrapped in plastic
Grian's inscentives become awfully clear.
I see
You beat me to it. Those darned hep fools
Hep was no match
I was looking for a comment like this
Omg this is perfect
Love this, great episode! 👏😌
you here? lol
Imagine 3d printing with this
What's sad is that they decided to patent this technology.
@@fritzdeuces Isn't the thing with patenting tho if you don't somebody else will? Not to mention different laws in different countries. You could effectively be locked out of your own product. It's not the patents that are bad, it's how they are used.
Sounds brilliant to me…can’t see a downside…not sure how much more plastic we can ingest before- plastic caused cancers start to ramp up
It already did.
And male infertility
no downside..thats what the environ mental whackos said when they forced us to replace glass and paper bags with plastic
@@johnnyllooddte3415 Maybe there was none for a short time except for the people producing that garbage. But for a long time the downsides has just been growing. This can't take over too soon.
Hmm... the few I can think of... how often do you need to replace your current insulation compared to this.
Another would be possible allergy. Time, it takes seconds to make injection molded plastic compared to a week for this. None of these things say NOT to keep going, I love this idea. But we can't be so blinded byt the benefits that we ignore the flaws... thats exactly what got us to the point we're at.
You can't say it's plant based if it is made out of mushroom, when then it's fungie based
I'm happy to see the promise of fungal replacements for plastics. In the meantime, plastic waste should mostly be burnt for energy rather than recycled, in most cases, though cracking it down to some kind of diesel fuel is probably worth considering too. It is incorrect to say that burning plastic produces toxins as this generally applies to open burning in uncontrolled conditions. In a properly managed combustion system it burns cleanly and you can add further steps to processing flue gases to make sure that nothing bad gets into the atmosphere. As long as we are burning virgin petroleum for fuel it seems irrational not to burn plastic waste - either way we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere but if you make the oil into plastic first you get to do something useful with it before you turn it into energy.
A suggestion we practice in this home right now... I burn all the plastic we buy in the fireplace, I never put it in the bin. I've been doing that for 20 years now, as soon as I realized how much energy it contains, and how much was used to make it in the first place.
@@mickelodiansurname9578 I actually don't think that's a good idea. In uncontrolled conditions burning plastic can produce some fierce toxins that simply should not be released into either the local or global environment.
@@mickelodiansurname9578 I am terrified to think of the toxins you've breathed in doing that. You've also sent them out into the air for your neighbors to breathe. Please stop!
@@mickelodiansurname9578 and release all the toxins in the atmosphere
Idk how effective mushrooms are at doing this but there are mushrooms and worms that can eat plastic. From my pov, seems better to have them take care of that rather than burn plastic
I’d like to see mycelium coffee cups. People have moved from polystyrene ones to paper cups, but the lamination and treatment required to make paper cups that don’t immediately collapse and drench your hands in boiling hot coffee make them as much an environmental disaster as polystyrene. Perhaps more, because in many places you can’t actually recycle paper cups as you would other paper and cardboard, so they end up contaminating recyclable waste, while polystyrene cups always ends up in discarded waste, never contaminating recycling loads.
Ohhh yes or mycelium straws
@@ChaosSwissroIl personally I keep a travel mug in my backpack. I don't always have my backpack, and would like a more sustainable solution when I want a cup of tea and can't spare the time to stop and have it in a normal mug. All I know for sure is paper cups are not that solution. Polystyrene has its problems, and is definitely worse, but it shouldn't be this close a call. I'll take a mycelium cup any day over both.
@@ChaosSwissroIl I guess it's fine, if you don't count the emissions in producing it, or the complete lack of biodegradability, or the source of the petrochemical it's made of.
Imagine edible cup
@@ChaosSwissroIl The problem with plastics isn't the sustainability of production, but the sustainability of disposal. We either burn that shit, releasing all kinds of nasty shit into the atmosphere, or just leave it lying around where it could take 100s of years to slowly degrade. Mycelium on the other hand would either burn up almost entirely into CO², adding only as much back into the atmosphere as was used in the production of the material itself (growing the biowaste and mycelium for the material), or just going straight back to the earth in less than a month.
You completely missed the point on production as well, if existing mycelium replacements already vastly outperform their polymer counterparts as noted in the video, then there's no reason to keep going with plastics on that front too.
There’s a place close to my hometown called Mushroom Mountain. They’ve been researching and creating construction materials with mycelium like cinder blocks and insulation. My biology class took a field trip there and it was probably the coolest thing I’ve seen.
Idk how you can answer my curiosity as to where it is without doxxing yourself/family but it'd be pretty cool if ya could.
Edit: didn't realize that you named it in the title, found it.
There is another alternative that uses recaptured CO2 from the air fed to water based algae that then produce a material that can be used to produce a plastic alternative with most of the same properties that can be used to produce the same sort of products and biodegrades within a few years. A great alternative for disposable items such as straws, shopping bags, disposable cutlery.
I think that for at least 10 years I've been watching countless videos of multiple things and technologies that were coming to ease the burden of our civilization on the environment, but still I've seen very little real implementation. It looks as though the ideas are great and plausible, everything ends up being just experimental good intentions.
One simple explanation is this.
Lobbying. Thats it. The ultragrich prevent anything good from rising up because it's gonna ruin their profit.
Government regulations
Red tape, basically
We have to play our part, nothing will happen if we just watch, we have to also be involved, we are all links in a chain
Not sure if you realize it, but this is our future. th-cam.com/video/evMBPlBlUrs/w-d-xo.html
Ok even with allergies to moulds and fungi..... this is amazing progress. I hope this becomes a standard for packaging material
We have people making mycelium foam, yet Amazon can’t help but send me a different package for every item I order.
Stop ordering from Amazon. They commit to sending a percentage of their profits to questionable charities.
@@VaxtorT so?
@@OreganoParsley I do not expect everyone to give a damn; but many folk who are concerned about the future of the family unit and our Nation do give a damn. Families are the building blocks of a strong, productive, resourceful Nation. Destroy the family....destroy the nation. Amazon donates millions to charities that work to undermine and destroy the American family
@@VaxtorT you need to be in the right place with the right audience and in the right time to be able to convince anyone, and the TH-cam comment section isn't the place for that, not saying that what you're saying doesn't matter but that this isn't the greatest place for that, it just looks out of place.
@@bitraboj722 I cannot help it. It is so disturbing to see so many who are so thoroughly indoctrinated by the the mainstream narrative. Perhaps commenting on you tube is not the best place.....but it is presently the only forum I have since being paralyzed a few years ago.
I really dislike the amount of power Amazon has, but if they were to use this technology I really think we would see almost every other company follow suit which would reduce plastic waste by crazy amounts! Also acoustic insulation is something that’s often overlooked so thank you for looking into that! I feel like noise is a big issue in large cities, not only because of the amount of sounds happening, but because I imagine sounds bounce off of the buildings and concrete. By building stuff out of these materials we could reduce noise pollution too!
I loved their application of cardboard tape. Now i use it too. Its much easier to work with than standard plastic tape because it doesnt stick to itself as much.
I do not always agree with some of your statements, but I very much appreciate your stating both sides of the tech issues. Because you do that, your videos are enjoyable and thought provoking. Thank you for giving us information we can use to form our own ideas.
I'd be more than happy to use mycelium insulation, seems like a cool application, though we'd have to see if due to the heat and moisture it may degrade in the walls.
I remember reading or watching something about mycelium bricks where they are made dormant but can be reactivated to bind the individual bricks together into one structure and then made dormant again. Seems like a great application. Or imagine growing the mycelium in the wall cavity on site and then neutralizing it. Perfectly sealed cavity with the insulation bonded to the studs. May even act as an air barrier.
I’ve actually seen this foam before, I just never realized where it was from. I assumed it was just cardboard!
I wonder what mice and other rodents would think of mycelium home insulation?
Imagine shoes biodegrading after you've left them uncleaned of dirt for a while.
Better than them being around for hundreds of years ... But being used for only a year.
@@teknosisglitch2432 fr
Still last longer than nikes.
@@Donatellangelo what do you do to your shoes. I have mostly Nike shoes and they’ve lasted for year. 6 at least
@@g8x2keeper walk
For packaging that seems like a plausible win. Shoes, building materials and wearables? Yeah I don't think those will have legs, how durable would something like that even be for a shoe.
I don’t like the idea of shoes that break down after only 45days
@@M33f3r I dunno man if it didn't have a lifespan comparable to regular shoes it wouldn't be advertised. I looked it up and they're supposed to last around 10 years.
@@nathansealy1354 And let's be honest, there's a lot people who changes sneakers every year for pure fashion, so longevity will never be an issue for them
@Future Pants And... this comment is directed towards me specifically?
@Future Pants Which is why I think sneakers are ridiculously overpriced. For the premium I pay for branded sneakers, I could buy a really good pair (or more) of boots which will last me a decade.
Me: **Sees Mycelium in the title**
Also me: **Has Hermitcraft Turf War flashbacks**
podzol party!
I was trying to figure out why my soul screamed every time he said mycelium
The resistance lives.
I was litterally just watching grian's new vid.
@@thepastaprogenitor851 same
Great piece, thank you, the most comprehensive assessment of mycelium's game-changing potential I've seen yet!
I can't believe that Mycelium Resistance has been brought into the real world lol
I clicked this video just to see how long it would take me to find a hermitcraft comment.
Afterall, I guess they won
@@garryjones62 Remember, it's all about the principle
I learned about Ecovative when they did a proof-of-concept tiny house that used mycelium as insulation. I was sad that they never went further with the idea, but at least they continued exploring other uses.
I am hoping to build an earth ship style house using rammed earth walls (not a fan of the tire walls) and mycelium insulation.
Any idea what the R value per inch is on the insulation?
Btw no idea why people think meat causes GW, its got more to do with food waste than anything.
In otherwords if meat doesn't get thrown out (and plant matter releases a lot of CO2 when it dies)
So not sure if mycellium has less of a carbon impact than wheat and grain.
@@fredflintstone4715 I am not sure its actual value, but if I were to hazard I guess, I would say slightly below traditional materials like fiberglass.
What I am thinking of doing is 9 inches of rammed earth, 24 inches of mycelium grown on a straw based medium, and then another 9 inches of rammed earth for the outer wall. It should easily out perform any traditional 12 inch thick wall. My only concern is if the mycelium can penetrate through the rammed earth and get into the house. Not sure if there are any good ways to kill it off to prevent that...
@@cartoonhanks1708 Well, in spite of the embarrassment of the Green New Deal, it is true that livestock release methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. Also, livestock is very inefficient from an energy in to calories out perspective. I don't know the exact numbers, but if you fed the plants directly to people rather than to livestock, you are supposed to be able to feed 4 or 5 people off the plantstock necessary to feed one person on meat.
Of course, that does not account for the high protein content and trace nutrients you can get from meat that you don't get from plants. I personally believe a mixed but balanced diet is best (not an expert, just my opinion).
I doubt that mycelium insulation is any good for carbon sequestration, but I like the idea because it is a lot safer than fiberglass insulation. Hopefully cheaper too, but I am not as confident about that.
@@cartoonhanks1708 People think meat causes global warming because cows that eat primarily grain do produce excess methane. It's a solvable problem for sure (alternative-- albeit more expensive-- feed is one option) but the methane they produce isn't an insignificant amount.
Interestingly, wasn't it discovered that some fungus can aid in breaking down plastics faster? Wouldn't that be wonderful-mycelium replacing plastic while also safely disposing it?
There is a book anticipating this!!
Thank you for this video. In 2019 a French medium wrote about how is most likely gonna be life on earth in about a hundred years. One of the many things he explained is that buildings were gonna be made of a material that is made of fungus and some metals, with incredible properties like self repairing and reactive to the environment. Seemingly we won't need to wait a hundred years for that. I'm so excited!! (Other advantages will be the reciclability of buildings once not in use and that they are biocompatible and thus more respectful with our own health when being inside).
Terr2 Sylvain Didelot
I'm curious as to whether the fungus based plastics and other applications would trigger mushroom allergies? I know someone deathly allergic to mushrooms, so would she just be unable to use these? Great video, vids like these fill me with hope for our ability to fix the world!
I guess it all depends on what a person allergic to mushrooms is allergic to. For example, "allergy to cats" it's due (in most cases) to a compound in the saliva of cats, not to cat hair (cat hair just contains this compound due to cats grooming themselves with their tongue). So by genetically engineering a cat that does not produce that compound, you get cats that don't produce allergies. This would be the same: there would need to be a research on what compound exactly triggers the shroom allergy, and then see if the compound remains there after thermal treatment (since it might be present only while the mycelium is alive, or it could degrade at high temperatures). And if it's there, see if mycelium can be modified as to not produce such compund (which should bedoable, as long as that compound is not essential for the mycelium to live or grow)
Good point. I would imagine that the treatment and the spray they coat it with would prevent spores/antigens from floating around the environment. The presenter is a bit disingenuous. The cost for shroom packaging is almost 2x more than styrofoam. We are 10 years too early for this to be used as packaging
They say it’s killed before it goes to market, so…hopefully wouldn’t trigger any response?
There are people who are deathly allergic to pvc, bpa and other plastic leachate/biproducts. I worked with a woman who is so sensitive/allergic to plastics that she has her allergies tattooed on the under side of one of her forearms AND she can't touch, let alone consume, anything that comes into contact with plastic utensils even if it was a contact lasting mere seconds - otherwise she goes into severe anaphylaxis which requires a scary trip to the ER.
So, aside from a handful of metals, there's going to be people who are allergic to any material out there which does NOT belittle your friend's allergy. It is a very important concern, like my ex-coworker's plastic allergies. My guess is that it depends on what exactly she is allergic to in mushrooms. Is it something that a fungus excretes while it's alive? Does that substance break down after the micillium dies? Is it a vital structural component of the micellium?
I suppose your friend would have to make adjustments (avoid micellium products) in their life like anybody else who suffers from various allergies. 🤔
@@termineitor1994 Excellent points!
Just tell me where to invest my money! I'm hardly an environmentalist, but this makes sense in many ways.
i have a few ideas.
It'll make billions of cents too...
Same.... I'm way to liquid at the moment...
This seems like a decent long term investment.
Way better than Solar Frigging Roadways at least. ;)
i only invest when the youre plastic edible
I'm down for using mycelium to make packaging materials as a lot of that gets used every day and does not get re-used.
HOWEVER using mycelium in a house. Might as well put a sign in your front lawn that says "This house was made with ECO-Friendly Products To speed up the rate it decomposes So you Have to buy a new one in 40 years."
My grandmas house was made with "NON-ECO-Friendly" materials when my grandma was in her 20s and most of the stone that was used in the chimney and basement is pretty much rubble.
But it could be used inside normal walls to make them more isolated both thermically and acustically..so we could already avoid using those materials
I would say insulation more than the walls of a house
It’s just for the insulation, not the building
@@CampingforCool41 For now, at least.
"Oh no this biodegradable material is degraded by biology"
Wow this is incredible, if this ain't the solution I don't know what is.
hemp based plastic maybe
I'd love to see large scale inoculation of landfills with some sort of fungi that could more efficiently and thoroughly breakdown all the waste that would otherwise not decompose, such as plastics and harmful chemicals. Is anyone working on this and specifically targeting landfills? I know Paul Stamets did an experiment on an oil spill, but I think it would be very beneficial if we could more safely and swiftly biodegrade our landfills as well.
th-cam.com/video/TS9PWzkUG2s/w-d-xo.html
Peter McCoy has several projects on mycoremediation
You mean like that thing with Superworms that break down styrofoam? People have already done stuff like that, just not on a huge scale
Even just replacing the packaging on a lot of stuff would make a massive difference
@@ChaosSwissroIl First, the mycelium decomposes about twice as fast, and second, how is this a scam? It is only slightly more expensive than Styrofoam and much more eco-friendly.
Oh soon enough someone will come up with a thousand reasons Mycelium farming is destroying the planet and and make a lucrative career out of a 501 nonprofit against it.
Some countries use plastic for almost everything even when it's not needed .....I don't know why?
@@mrsprite399 because it's cheap and easy
I'm having a hard time reconciling the biodegradability of this substance with longevity. If the stuff breaks down quickly, how can it be used in products that should last for months or years?
Think of it like wood. Properly cared for and used it can last for years. Same for this. Keep it dry and use as intended it will last for a long time. Compost it and it'll break down in a month or two.
Its exactly like wood or paper, if you don’t give them the right condition to compost, they will hardly do so
Wood is more versatile. It sounds like there are many different kinds of ways they are making the fungus material, and right now it seems like it's limited to only be able to not do much with the fungus material other then what was intended. Maybe they figure out how to make it better, but you're sooner are going to have a wood house survive 100 years, then a mushroom house. I think it would be a great plastic replacement, but I don't think it will be something you can be rough with, like you can with wood, and certain plastics.
@@WhynotMinot How long will Styrofoam insulation in a wooden house last* and what is it reactive chemical off gassing half life ?
*At the frist remodeling much of will go to land fill
@@mittnival5562My house I don't think uses Styrofoam insulation, it has a bunch of fiber glass. There are definitely pros to having various things made out of mycelium, but I think longevity isn't going to be very high on mycelium stuff. It's still early in development though.
This will become a HUGE game changer!!
Minecraft players be like : "Oh yeah it's all coming together"
it's about the principle
*yes*
It’s about the principle!!!
it’s about the principle
Oil companies are hanging on for dear life. In my area, an oil company sued Netflix for making the oil industry sound bad for the environment (all the show did was state facts)
Loooool if stating factual information makes a company feel bad, maybe they should change their practices. These industries say they'll go green by 20XX, but that in itself is almost a paradox. Oil companies going green? The only green they are interested in is that cash money 😂
I mean, I wouldn't say they're "hanging on for dear life", since oil-based products are still more prevalent and cheap than most of the alternatives save for a few specific cases. It's going to be a few years until we see widespread mycelium foam usage, let alone replacement for things like gasoline or rubber.
Out of curiosity, would your area happen to be Alberta, Canada?
I ask because our gov has sued Netflix for a movie that depicted the oil industry in a mildly negative light
@@bojackhorseman4176 gasoline will be become obsolete in the future sadly. Just as much as combustion engines, because of the Electric Vehicles hype.
I say sadly because there is a way to make "synthetic" gasoline. By using hydrogen combined with carbon, you can get the fuel, in an even more pure form than otherwise. Porsche is studying exactly that and the aim would be to use the CO2 out of the air to produce these so called E-Fuels. Quite expensive to make tho.
And rubber? Again, E-fuels do the trick here. Not quite, but the same principle applies as gasoline, rubber, wax and all plastics are somewhat comprised of carbohydrates, that can be produced in the same way that E-fuels can be produced. But plastics... ye we need the stuff from this video for that.
Matt, this was a great video. This news gives us hope for a greener future. This is also something for us all to invest in and support. Great topic and coverage.