Harnessing the power of mycelium is a proven natural alternative to Styrofoam, and is beginning to take over from other problematic materials that are difficult to recycle, require heavy processing before reuse, or worse, are sent straight to landfill.

With the continued rise in online ordering of gifts and homewares, packaging has never been more important. Thankfully, many companies are becoming increasingly conscious of their environmental impact, and there’s been a real surge in those seeking sustainable packaging solutions - which is great to see!

The benefits of Mycelium packaging, is it is 100% biodegradable, sustainable and compostable at home.

Want to know how it works?

Spawn is a fungal culture that has grown onto a substrate, from which mycelium develops. Mycelium is a network of hyphae, and from this, in their natural environment mushrooms will go onto grow - like the root and fruit system of a plant.  

At the farm we hand make our mushroom grow kits and at the base of our substrate is a combination of reclaimed hardwood sawdust, straw and used coffee grounds - all collected from local industries close to where we are in West Sussex. Mycelium packaging producers are also using a range of agricultural byproducts sourced here in the UK, such as hemp, soy hull husks and finely chopped straw.

It’s an entirely natural process. Mycelium - the root-like network of fungi - binds together the substrate, in this case - agricultural materials, to form a surprisingly strong structure. The result is a durable, hydrophobic (it shrugs off water) material that is as good as Styrofoam, but once finished with can be composted at home in just a few weeks.

Within our product range we have a couple of exciting projects that harness the power of mycelium to create this such as some made seedling pots, perfect for sowing your spring seedlings.  Our coffee and book projects get you growing mushrooms on your own used or collected coffee grounds or an old book you have.  These projects take you back to the beginning and allow you to witness your mycelium grow, quickly colonising its surrounding - turning your soft, brown, coffee smelling grounds, into a solid, white, earth smelling block that you can then go onto grow your own crop of mushroom from.  This process usually takes place out of sight and underground - so it's a great way to see the whole process.  We go onto explore all of these projects and many more within our book 'Project Mushroom'

There are already a few big-name companies exploring this space…

We've been lucky enough to work MONC - the conscious eye wear company, as they launched their own mycelium packaging - we helped them create some glorious photography opportunity to help communicate their story and transition over to mycelium packaging as well as a living installation for their flagship store in London - where we converted their Christmas wreath into a living, growing mushroom installation utilising unsellable denim from a local charity shop.

Could we get all get a little closer to zero waste?

Time to get experimenting.

Mush love