Our homes and offices are full of cabinetry, fittings and furniture made from particleboards. The resins and binding agents used to bond fibres and particles are in question, especially formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
In New York a ‘new breed’ of construction materials is being ‘grown’ by inoculating wood waste and particles with the root structure of mushrooms (mycelium). In a matter of days the fungus grows and binds with wood particles to produce a materials that can be cut and shaped.
The video is about how a company called Ecovative Design is ‘using nature’s technology to grow and glue’.