A few notes on… our packaging, grown from mushrooms.
You heard right. Our new packaging is grown here in the UK, by the magic of mushrooms.
We’re all about treading lightly on our magical planet. Running a mile from single-use plastic should be a top priority for everyone and mushrooms are here to save the day, with a new type of sturdy packaging that’s grown here in the UK.
Harnessing the magic of mushrooms, The Magical Mushroom Company grow protective packaging by combining agricultural by-products such as hemp, cork and sawdust with Mycelium, before baking it for six days into durable packaging.
A perfect alternative packaging to protect our candles on their travels.
Mycelium is truly magical.
Growing underground like a giant tree, mycelium is a rich network of thin thread-like tissue filaments called Hyphae, that collect food, water, and nutrients.
It’s is the root system (and vegetative body) of a mushroom, living symbiotically with forest fauna to exchange nutrients in return for sugar, before fruiting mushrooms above ground.
Mycelium also contains Chitin - nature’s glue - a natural polymer chain that’s water and flame resistant, providing the mushroom with support and anchorage as it spreads into the substrate the fungus is growing on (wood, soil, compost), finding and breaking down food sources to grow more mushrooms.
Growing packaging - no plastic in sight.
To form packaging, mycelium is mixed with agricultural by-products (the substrate) and grown, to bind it all together.
It’s then baked in a kiln to dry, producing the final product - a robust, sustainable alternative to plastic foams, such as polystyrene - that’s just perfect for protecting our ceramic candles.
Once you’ve unpacked your candle, mushroom packaging and be broken up and disposed of with food waste and/or home-composted, decomposing with or without oxygen - a fully biodegradable, recyclable and compostable alternative that doesn’t require any special treatment.
It’s fully biodegradable in around 45 days and - one of our favourite uses - it can be broken down and mixed with seeds before being dispersed in the garden. Blooming lovely!
Check out The Magical Mushroom Company’s project with Local Bee - they’re on a mission to reintroduce honeybees back to their natural habitats in the UK.
