Dell To Grow Mushroom Packaging For Its Servers

Mushrooms grown within a mold will cushion Dell products during shipping, the computer manufacturer announced today.
"The mushroom cushioning is unique because it is grown and not manufactured in the traditional sense," said Oliver Campbell, Dell's senior packaging manager.
Because it's grown, the new packaging requires 98 percent less energy to produce than foam packaging, and after it serves its purpose, customers can compost it. The ability to divert packaging from the waste stream reduces costs for businesses and individuals in states like California where waste removal charges are based on volume.
The process works like this. Waste product—like cotton hulls—are placed in a mold which is then inoculated with mushroom spawn. Our cushions take 5-10 days to grow as the spawn, which become the root structure — or by the scientific name, mycelium — of the mushroom. All the energy needed to form the cushion is supplied by the carbohydrates and sugars in the ag waste. There's no need for energy based on carbon or nuclear fuels.
Dell announced the new packaging in a press release issued today, and Campbell introduced it at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Virtual Conference in Laguna Niguel, California.
Dell has tested the packaging in its laboratories and will now try it with select customers of its PowerEdge R710 servers, which are shipped four at a time, before deciding whether to deploy mushrooms in all its packaging. The mushroom cushions will be used in combination with other packaging made from bamboo.
"We’ve tested this in the lab, it’s passed all of our packaging tests. It performed like a champ. But it’s not something we just want to start sending to our customers. That would be surprising," Campbell said. "With any new material we introduce, we want to make sure it’s fully vetted."
No comment from Dell on the packaging's relative cost.
[UPDATE: Comment arrived this afternoon from Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman on the packaging's relative cost: "It’s a bit premature for that cost comparison, since the test is just underway and we don’t have the data yet to fully know."]
The packaging was developed by Ecovative Design with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.