365 Ways to Save the Planet

Day 288 – It’s National Mushroom Day! So, it was the perfect day to discuss how mushrooms are now being used to make packaging for products. Back in 2020, IKEA announced that they would be replacing styrofoam with mushroom-based packaging.

“IKEA recognizes the damage to the planet that polystyrene causes, mostly because it takes hundreds (if not thousands) of years to decompose in landfill. By contrast, plant-based packaging can break down in a matter of weeks. Developed by product design company Ecovative Design, the mycelium-based material is called Mushroom Packaging, or MycoComposite.” – IKEA

So, for those of you that are not big fans of the fungus, mushrooms are the future to sustainable packaging.

Here are some interesting facts about mushrooms:

1. There is a 2400-year-old giant “honey mushroom” in Oregon, covering 2200 acres, slowly killing off the trees in the forest. It is the largest living organism on the planet. 
2. Portabello mushrooms, button mushrooms, and white mushrooms are all the same mushrooms at different levels of maturity.
3. Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants.
4. The most expensive single food ingredient sold was a 3.3lb white truffle, a subterranean mushroom that sold for $330,000.
5. There is a mushroom that dissolves itself. It is edible, but it must be cooked or eaten within hours of picking.

Tomorrow, celebrating World Food Day.