Biodegradable packaging from cotton waste

Proprietary agricultural waste blends provided by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are being used in a new process that literally grows custom packaging products to protect computers and other breakables during shipping. Woody cotton waste is blended, pasteurized, and embedded into a customized cast tool. Then the tool is injected with the fungus, which grows onto, in, and around the cotton waste, eventually forming a new, consistently textured, solid mass. Once the tool is opened, a custom-shaped solid mass emerges, which is biodegradable, compostable and flame retardant, but has the cushioning strength of synthetic packing material (News Item USDA, 9 December 2013).
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