The flat-pack furniture retailer³ is looking at using the biodegradable "fungi⁴ packaging" as part of its efforts to reduce waste and increase recycling, Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainability for Ikea in the UK said.

 

"We are looking for innovative⁵ alternatives to materials, such as replacing our polystyrene packaging with mycelium - fungi packaging," she said.

 

Mycelium is the part of a fungus⁶ that grows in a mass of branched fibres, attaching to the soil or whatever it is growing on - in effect, mushroom roots.

 

US firm Ecovative developed the product, which it calls Mushroom Packaging, by letting the mycelium grow around clean agricultural waste, such as corn stalks or husks.

 

Over the space of a few days the fungus fibres bind⁷ the waste together, forming a solid shape, which is then dried to stop it growing any further.

 

Ms Yarrow told the Telegraph that Ikea was looking at introducing mycelium packaging because "a lot of products come in polystyrene, traditionally, which can’t be - or is very difficult to - recycle".

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