US firm uses plant waste to make green packaging

A New York-based company has raised over $14m (€10.3m) of equity capital in a bid to go worldwide with its use of mushrooms and agricultural wastes to manufacture an environmentally responsible alternative to traditional foam packaging, insulation, and other plastic-based materials.

Ecovative will be one of the exhibitors at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture next month in Abu Dhabi, which will focus on how to feed growing populations from a limited arable area.

Ecovative is the 2013 winner of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge which recognises design science approaches to radically advance human well-being and the health of ecosystems. The company uses mycelium (the vegetative growth stage of fungi, an organism akin to a living polymer, according to Ecovative), together with agricultural wastes like stalks and seed husks.