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LONDON — Ikea is planning to use packaging made with mushrooms as an eco-friendly replacement for polystyrene.

The furniture retailer is looking at using the biodegradable mycelium “fungi packaging” as part of its efforts to reduce waste and increase recycling, Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainability for Ikea in the U.K., said.

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Mycelium is the part of a fungus that effectively acts as its roots. It grows in a mass of branched fibres, attaching itself to the soil or whatever surface it is growing on.

The American company Ecovative developed the product, which it calls Mushroom Packaging, by letting the mycelium grow around clean agricultural waste, such as corn stalks or husks. Over a few days, the fungus fibres bind the waste together, forming a solid shape, which is then dried to stop it growing any further.

Yarrow said Ikea was looking at introducing mycelium packaging because a lot of products that traditionally come in polystyrene cannot be recycled with ease or at all.