– The possibility of using industrial materials as containers instead of Styrofoam –
Technology to make environmentally friendly packaging materials using ‘badge’* left over from mushroom harvesting has also been developed in Korea. The Ministry of Rural Development (Chairman Cho Jae-ho) announced that it had developed the related technology and completed a patent application**.
*This is what is left after harvesting mushrooms. After harvesting, the medium contains mushroom mycelium and agricultural by-products such as sawdust, rice straw, and rice bran.
** Name of patent application: Manufacturing method of eco-friendly Styrofoam alternative material using agricultural by-products and its use (Patent Application Number: 10-2022-0131768)
Although the medium remaining after harvesting mushrooms has a high utility value, only 16.9% of the 800,000 tons (2020) in Korea is collected and recycled (compost, etc.) for a fee , and the rest is treated as simple waste.
The Ministry of Rural Development has been conducting research on upcycling * eco-friendly materials that can replace packaging materials that are not easily decomposed, such as Styrofoam, in order to increase the added value and use of the medium after harvesting mushrooms from 2021.
* A method of recycling that re-designs by-products or discarded items and recreates them as high value items
After harvesting the enoki mushrooms and sterilizing the remaining medium, the researchers also supplied nutrients and moisture, and then inoculated the mycelium * of a specific mushroom.
* It is a structure where thin filamentous hyphae intertwine, and compared to a plant, it acts like a root that absorbs nutrients.
After that, they succeeded in making environmentally friendly packaging containers through a process of filling a shaped mold as a packaging material, that is, solidifying the shape. The incubation period for molding took 15 to 30 days at the beginning of the study, but by developing the amount of additional nutrients and culture method technology, the incubation period was reduced by more than half to 7 days.
Additionally, the material’s handling rate* has been reduced to ‘no damage (100%)’ improved to over 90%. FYI, the handling rate of Styrofoam is about 100%.
* Indicates the degree of brittleness of the material, the ratio range is 0 (complete damage) – 100 (no damage)
The mushroom mycelium used in this study has the characteristic of forming a dense network structure with the media particles by intertwining thin filamentous mycelium (cells). Thanks to this, it has a strong property (rigidity) to keep the shape and volume constant. Therefore, in addition to packaging containers, it is widely used as various industrial materials such as insulation materials, building materials, and interior decoration products. In addition, it is 100% biodegradable with natural ingredients.*
* Fossil fuel based Styrofoam takes more than 500 years to biodegrade, and when burned, environmental hormones and toxic gases are produced.
Since the early 2000s, foreign companies have already developed and commercialized various types of environmentally friendly industrial materials using the biological characteristics of mushroom mycelium. This research is meaningful as it has ensured a domestic technology with a culture period equal to the development period of mycelium manufactured by foreign companies and confirmed the possibility of developing eco-friendly industrial materials.
The Ministry of Rural Development intends to receive technical evaluations from experts, consumers and farmers to expand the market base of environmentally friendly materials using agricultural by-products. After that, the technology will be distributed to mushroom farms and eco-friendly companies through field application tests.
Meanwhile, according to the Korea Institute of Science and Information Technology (2021), the global packaging container sector using biomass * is expected to account for 64% of the bioplastics market** in 2026, or 28 trillion won . In addition, continued growth is expected at an average annual rate of 21.7% (domestic 13.5%) over the next five years.
* Biomass is a generic term for plants that synthesize organic matter based on solar energy and living organisms such as animals and microorganisms that use them as food.
** Bioplastics are biodegradable plastics that can be completely broken down by microorganisms under certain conditions.
Mushroom and Glove-yeol, manager of the National Academy of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Ministry of Rural Development, said, “After harvesting mushrooms, the medium is expected to be used not only as an alternative packaging material, but also in various areas of the type. such as insulation and building materials We will do our best to make the post-harvest medium, which used to be treated as simple waste, a new source of income for mushroom farmers by further researching the medium,” he said.
