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Will Fungi Be the New Leather?

 These days, fashion trends come as fast as they go. We’ve witnessed the rise of low rise and mom jeans to the rise and fall of jelly shoes as well as the revival of circular glasses. Through social media, these trends are quickly coming and going; they go hand in hand with cultural movements taking the scene. For a while now, sustainability has become the topic of discussion as society has realized the damage done to our natural resources. A recent fashion trend taking the scene is sustainable clothing. Fast fashion (clothing from Fashion Nova, Target, Forever 21 etc.) is being frowned upon while environmentally friendly clothing are gaining popularity. Leather, while reliable, is a by-product of the meat industry and is heavily associated with deforestation. Fungi-derived leather substitutes, on the other hand, are made with a natural, carbon-neutral fungal growth process. Biodegradable, they do not produce any fine particles that are released by regular clothing. The material is made of chitin and polysaccharides like proteins and cellulose derived from the fungus' mycelium. They’re made into mats grown on solid sawdust substrate that is made of protein, carbohydrates and fats before the material goes through physical and chemical processing. The process reinforces the idea of sustainable clothing that has a low environmental impact. 

        How fungi is made into leather  


References:
Jones, M., Gandia, A., John, S. et al. Leather-like material biofabrication using fungi. Nat Sustain (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00606-1


Comments

  1. MaggsSeptember 28, 2020 at 5:46 PM

    It is sad to see that we still use animals to make our clothes. However, it is amazing to see that environmental friendly clothes are being made. Very interesting to know it is fungi.

    ReplyDelete
  2. M MendezOctober 21, 2020 at 4:55 PM

    This is such a great move towards environmental sustainability. In Ritzuko Guiterrez's article, we see that unprocessed/processed meat has a negative effect on the environment and human health. Here we see that we can reduce our reliance on animal products even further.

    ReplyDelete

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