An Eco-Friendly Alternative To Styrofoam Packaging & Fiberglass Insulation

One of the hallmarks of our consumer culture is the excessive packaging that cradles the goods we purchase from big box stores.

Aside from the extraneous cardboard boxes that can be easily recycled but commonly are NOT, the synthetic white polystyrene foam within is made from a petroleum product known as styrene.

Through the polymerization process, the styrene is refined into a clear molten mass of polystyrene and this material is not just very challenging to recycle, it takes thousands of years to decompose in landfills.

EcoCradle (a subsidiary of Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer's Ecovative Design and Greensulate division) has created an earth-friendly, fully biodegradable alternative using fungal mycelium (the precursor to mushrooms) combined with agricultural by-products that have no value and can not be used for biomass applications or livestock food.

Depending on where their factories are located around the world, they introduce the fungal mycelium into the local raw ag byproducts such as cotton husks in Virginia or rice hulls in China.

The mycelium instantly bonds to these bio-materials, creating a rigid yet easily formable material that is ideal for packaging applications.

The best part is that once you remove your new toy from its safe EcoCradle protection zone, just break the alterni-foam up and toss it inot your garden or turn it under your compost pile.

The two inventors and founders of EcoCradle, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, are also using this material in their Greensulate line of rigid panel home insulation.

This is the kind of innovation that our world needs -- Bayer and McIntyre are poised to entirely revolutionize the packaging and insulation industries!!

Please take a look at this link to check out a video that demonstrates their process.