Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Mushroom Plastics!?! You Seriously Need to Watch This!

This is a great Ted.com talk about using mycellium (the underground part of fungi) to create non-toxic, completely decomposable packaging that is made from waste! Awesome! If you haven't checked out Ted.com yet, you really need to. It is basically like youtube, but designed for science geeks, like myself. Slightly addictive.
Styrofoam, which I was just complaining about a few weeks ago, is horrible for the planet and for its inhabitants (that's us, people). It clogs landfills, pollutes water, and is a carcinogen. Plus, it is made from non-renewable fossil fuels. Eben Bayer and his crew have figured out a way to inoculate crop wastes with mycellium in order to create a biodegradable styrofoam that will actually improve the soil when it is discarded. Seriously, why isn't this everywhere? People have such amazing and innovative ideas and I just can't figure out why this isn't already in the mainstream. This 9 minute talk is a must watch! Pin It Now!

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