*promote!

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Monday, October 4th, 2010 9:45am PDT - promote requested by original submitter SlipperyPete.

I notice he doesn't mention cost... This looks promising, hopefully it's economically reasonable as well.

As a side note, I'm not sure I see the big deal about plastic not degrading in the landfill. Sure, it's a waste of energy to use oil to make disposable items, but if I had to choose between them degrading or not degrading, I think I prefer them being inert. If plastics don't break down, they can't release toxic substances, either, can they? Rocks don't biodegrade either. Is there something I'm missing here? Note that I'm not talking about plastic in the wild, that's a different issue as it can get eaten by animals etc.

@rebuilder

seriously? ...seriously..

>> ^rebuilder:

I'm not sure I see the big deal about plastic not degrading in the landfill.


Unlike rocks, plastic does degrade over time, such as with UV radiation. Even if you were to assume that it were possible for the majority of the world's produced plastic to be sequestered underground, a remaining percentage will still end up in all sorts of unfortunate places.

5 days to make one part seems slightly impractical for main stream application. Very cool none the less. Perhaps with some gene modifications on their mycelium they could get faster yieldings. Gl with that yall, sounds nifty.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

5 days to make one part seems slightly impractical for main stream application. Very cool none the less. Perhaps with some gene modifications on their mycelium they could get faster yieldings. Gl with that yall, sounds nifty.


that's just 5 days for the process to take place , it does not affect production time really as what you do is you would set up say 3,000 parts in 1 day and then you just have to wait 5 days for them to cure and they are ready.

pretty much the same way as sum-one would have to wait 5 days for delivery , or for example with stamping it can take a day or so for the stamp to be made before productoin can start.

if you are an industrial packager , a 5 day wate time on say a 10,000 10 million part order is totally negligible.

once production has started and you have filled the 5 day cure buffer then production speed of x product would be excaltly the same as other productoin processes as well

Magic packing peanuts take me to the sky!

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

5 days to make one part seems slightly impractical for main stream application. Very cool none the less. Perhaps with some gene modifications on their mycelium they could get faster yieldings. Gl with that yall, sounds nifty.


How long do you think it takes to grow plants or feed cows to make a steak? Last I heard there was no shortage of either.

The five days thing is a non-issue unless you need constant just-in-time production of custom parts. Even then you could simply account for the five day lag in your operations by designing new parts five days in advance.

Of course, you'd have to beware of planning things too much in advance, lest you come up with quinquennial plans. Oh noes, communism! Still, thinking in advance instead of just "making shit right fucking now whatever the cost" can't be a bad thing.

We probably have to pay for the product's overhead at this point. Though, if I had money I'd invest in this ; plastic is a huge problem because you might think most of it ends up in the landfill and that is probably true but too much ends up in the ocean. Parts of our oceans on Earth are dead zones because of plastic and those dead zones are growing and will be dead for a long, long time.

In the long run since many small facilities can be established to fit the demand of this product it will be good for the economy ; when more and more facilities open up the less expensive it will would probably become creating a win/win.../win situation.

Does it yield enough to replace Styrofoam? He doesn't say, he just says he's happy with the yield rates.

It's cool and all, but if it's going to up the cost of shipping because there's not enough of it, it's not going to happen.

Totally Awesome. I would love to see a better idea than plastic and packing foam. Think of all the possibilities and being totally biodegradable. If you can do this then refine the process and make the shipping box itself. Endless possibilities.

In the example he indicates 1.5 liters of petrol of equivalent energy in the Styrofoam package. That would be about $5 Us dollars. That's a lot to money. If his idea can be done at that price point then he has a world changing idea.

*doublepromote

Double-Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, October 4th, 2010 12:45pm PDT - doublepromote requested by MarineGunrock.

This may replace polystyrene, but it's no where close to replacing plastics as a whole.

It looked like they were using quite a bit of plastic during their growing process.

If only there were an eco-friendly alternative to plastic.....>> ^jimnms:

It looked like they were using quite a bit of plastic during their growing process.

When they don't talk about cost then it usually means you need to run for the hills. It's certainly an attractive concept. But I've tried to grow mushrooms before and they are pretty finicky organisms. One screwup in the process or the facility... A stray mold particle... A temperature spike... A sudden change in humidity... That could easily mean you lose an entire manufacturing run. Preventing that sort of problem would require intense, rigorous controls at any facility. That sort of requirement raises costs. Still - I'm all in favor of a plan that reduces styrofoam. Never liked the stuff. But I noticed all his stuff was being made in plastic molds... Oops.

@GenjiKilpatrick: Yes, seriously.

As I said, I was only referring to plastic in the landfill. I realize it will degrade over several hundreds of years, perhaps millenia - we don't really know yet, and it depends heavily on the environmental conditions - but again, if I have to choose between having toxic waste released into the environment quickly or very very slowly, I'll take the slow option. None of this is me saying it's ideal to make tons of plastics and throw it away, just that I think as long as we do have plastics and throw them away, it's not solely a bad thing they don't degrade very fast.

I'm open to any counterpoints, of course.

>> ^SlipperyPete:

>> ^rebuilder:
I'm not sure I see the big deal about plastic not degrading in the landfill.

Unlike rocks, plastic does degrade over time, such as with UV radiation. Even if you were to assume that it were possible for the majority of the world's produced plastic to be sequestered underground, a remaining percentage will still end up in all sorts of unfortunate places.

*nature

Adding video to channels (Nature) - requested by ant.