PORTFOLIO

A big contributor to the damage humanity causes to our planet stems from packaging such as Styrofoam. Once it ends up in nature, it takes at least 500 years for the petroleum-based foam to decompose. 25-30% of landfill mass is comprised of Styrofoam products. This underlines the dire urge to act.
Companies are increasingly under pressure to act in a more sustainable way. But most of them lack capacity for environmental projects. Mycpac aims to offer form-stable packaging which combines true environmental protection and long-term sustainability without compromising on any corporate goals.
The root structure of mushrooms – Mycelium - has the ability to give a body natural stability with the use of natural substrates such as wood and hemp. We use this property of Mycelium to produce form-stable packaging in a closed cycle. The packaging can either be deposed in a biogas plant or simply composted after use. Mycpac’s goal is to directly utilize the waste of mushroom cultivation where mycelium already is present. This saves time and reduces cost. We also aim to tackle the challenge of giving other waste products a second life. Even in non-agricultural industries.
In order to meet great demand, Mycpac aims to automate production. The main process steps consist of substrate mixing, filling it into moulds, letting the Mycelium grow for up to five days and stopping the growth process by means of heat.

Mycpac was born out of the need of our industrial partner Phoenix Komponenten AG to package its products in a sustainable way, as a part of an industrial project at OST St. Gallen. At this point, the project group has already proven the possibility of producing packaging with the direct use of waste products of mushroom cultivation.
After undergoing the current material testing, we are initiating pilot projects with different material properties, customized to the different product needs of various partners, customers, and industries. The pilot projects are carried out with the material with which we intend to enter the market first.
The upcycled materials from our mushroom cultivation partner Kernser Edelpilze and from a partner in a non-agricultural sector are in development.
In the last weeks, there have been some unpleasant developments in addition to numerous successes. Overall, the situation is such that the probability that Mycpac can develop positively in order to exist successfully is no longer sufficient. In this sense will Mycpac not continue