Everyday thermocol and bubble wrap, in which your favorite crockery or delicates come packaged, are non-biodegradable, and remain in the environment – indestructible – for years, clogging drains and the ocean.
Looking for an eco-friendly alternative to such material, two girl students from Hyderabad have made packages out of mushrooms. Yes, Mushroom!
Wadla Pranavi and Anupama of St. Ann’s College, Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad have come up with ‘porcini parcel’ packaging material made from gumbo mushroom mycelia and agricultural waste. The proposal was selected as part of the Youth for Social Impact programme, a collaborative effort by the Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), Department of Higher Education, Telangana, UNICEF India, Inqui-Lab Foundation, Y-Hub and YuWaah.
In an interview to News18, Pranavi said: “Our mycelium bricks are completely biodegradable within 40-50 days. Mycelium is a by-product of mushroom cultivation. Our product does not require water, light or chemicals to grow. After mixing the mycelia and agricultural waste, we heat it to a temperature of more than 200 °C. This takes away all the moisture and kills all the mycelia, making it a stable product.
The product is being developed for mass production at WeHub, India’s first state-based incubator for women entrepreneurs. There are no carbon emissions in the manufacturing of Porcini parcels.
Talking about how she and Pranavi developed their prototype, Anupama said: “We made mycelium bricks 25*12 cm long and placed a calorimeter weighing 15 kg on them. They could bear the load. We packed a fragile tea cup and dropped it from a height of six feet. After reaching the ground, the cup was found intact.
Bricks also bring down the temperature by 2-6 degrees. Hence they can also be used as tiles in homes.
Another important feature of such packaging is its low cost. The cost of one mycelium bed is Rs. They are made from the waste of mushroom cultivation, thus enabling upcycling. Prototypes of Ganesha idol, diya, brick, pen stand and vase were made to showcase the mycelium products and their strength. Through cost analysis, it was found that the manufacturer could make a profit of 400% on these products.
According to young innovators, eco-friendly porcini parcels could reduce the use of plastic in everyday life by up to 50%. Porcini parcels can replace existing plastics such as thermocol, styrofoam and bubble wraps, which will reduce the pollution load in the world.
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