PURIFYING CIGARETTE BUTTS WITH FUNGI
COMBINING SCIENCE - DESIGN - ECOLOGY
SCIENCE
Myco-remediation is an innovative fungal
decontamination method originally used to clean-up polluted sites. PuriFungi transposes the technique on cigarette butts and owns a patent on the technique. Mushroom strains are inoculated on butts which become a "food source" for the cultures. A digestive process generated by the mycelium - the root system of mushrooms - degrades the pollutants present in cigarette butts.
DESIGN
After remediation, a new material is created from the combination of butts and mycelium. This myco-material has many properties such as flame and water resistance, mechanical absorption, lightness and carbon sequestration during production.
If PuriFungi is currently making ashtrays out of it - closing the loop of the material cycle - it can also be used to create new bio-resources for various applications (isolating panels, biodegradable packaging, artistic sculptures...).
ECOLOGY
Fungi are well known to be the best recyclers in Nature: they can degrade organic and inorganic materials. Combining myco-remediation and bio-fabrication can create new opportunities from waste recovering to material production with a fully sustainable approach.
Working with Nature to regenerate Nature!