So, I'd like to spend a few minutes with you folks today imagining what our planet might look like in a thousand years. But before I do that, I need to talk to you about synthetic materials like plastics, which require huge amounts of energy to create and, because of their disposal issues, are slowly poisoning our planet. I also want to tell you and share with you how my team and I have been using mushrooms over the last three years. Not like that. (Laughter) We're using mushrooms to create an entirely new class of materials, which perform a lot like plastics during their use, but are made from crop waste and are totally compostable at the end of their lives.
我想和各位度過幾分鐘 想像我們一千年後的地球 但,在這之前 我要說說有關合成材料的事 創造合成材料需要消耗極大的能量 由於處置它們的問題 我們的地球正漸漸遭受毒害 我也想告訴你們並和你們分享: 我和我的團隊 在過去三年來,已使用蘑菇 不是利用它們的迷幻成份(笑聲) 我們用蘑菇創造出一種全新的材料 它用起來和塑膠相當 但卻是由農作物廢料所製成的 而且在丟棄時可以完全分解
(Cheering)
(歡呼聲)
But first, I need to talk to you about what I consider one of the most egregious offenders in the disposable plastics category. This is a material you all know is Styrofoam, but I like to think of it as toxic white stuff. In a single cubic foot of this material -- about what would come around your computer or large television -- you have the same energy content of about a liter and a half of petrol. Yet, after just a few weeks of use, you'll throw this material in the trash. And this isn't just found in packaging. 20 billion dollars of this material is produced every year, in everything from building materials to surfboards to coffee cups to table tops. And that's not the only place it's found. The EPA estimates, in the United States, by volume, this material occupies 25 percent of our landfills. Even worse is when it finds its way into our natural environment -- on the side of the road or next to a river. If it's not picked up by a human, like me and you, it'll stay there for thousands and thousands of years. Perhaps even worse is when it finds its way into our oceans, like in the great plastic gyre, where these materials are being mechanically broken into smaller and smaller bits, but they're not really going away. They're not biologically compatible. They're basically fouling up Earth's respiratory and circulatory systems. And because these materials are so prolific, because they're found in so many places, there's one other place you'll find this material, styrene, which is made from benzene, a known carcinogen. You'll find it inside of you.
但首先 我必須告訴各位,在一次性塑料類別中 我所認為最糟糕的東西是什麽。 這是你們都知道的材料: 發泡膠 我認為它比較像一種有毒的白色物質 每單位立方英尺的這種材料 -- 會出現在你的電腦或大電視的這一材料 -- 能源的內容,大約相當於 1.5公升的石油 然而,在幾個星期的使用後 你會把這東西丟進垃圾桶 它不只出現於包裝 每年有價值 200 億美元的材料被製造出來 從建築材料到衝浪板 從咖啡杯到桌子,包含了所有東西 這還不是你唯一能找到的地方 美國環境保護局估計, 在美國,塑膠材料佔了 25% 的土地面積 更糟的是,它們也出現於我們的自然環境中 - 在路旁或在河邊 它如果不被人撿起,比如你我 它就會在那裡待上千千萬萬年 甚至,更糟的是 它出現於我們的海洋中,比如太平洋環流區的龐大塑膠漩渦 在那,這些材料破碎成 一片一片小塊 但它們不是真正消失 它們無法生物分解 它們基本上加速了 地球的呼吸循環系統 另外,由於這些材料太大量了 由於它們覆蓋了太廣泛的地方 你可以在一個地方發現這材料,苯乙烯 由石油醚所構成,一種致癌物質 你會發現它也會出現於你體內
So, for all these reasons, I think we need better materials, and there are three key principles we can use to guide these materials. The first is feedstocks. Today, we use a single feedstock, petroleum, to heat our homes, power our cars and make most of the materials you see around you. We recognize this is a finite resource, and it's simply crazy to do this, to put a liter and a half of petrol in the trash every time you get a package. Second of all, we should really strive to use far less energy in creating these materials. I say far less, because 10 percent isn't going to cut it. We should be talking about half, a quarter, one-tenth the energy content. And lastly, and I think perhaps most importantly, we should be creating materials that fit into what I call nature's recycling system. This recycling system has been in place for the last billion years. I fit into it, you fit into it, and a hundred years tops, my body can return to the Earth with no preprocessing. Yet that packaging I got in the mail yesterday is going to last for thousands of years. This is crazy.
基於這些原因 我想我們需要更好的材料 我們可以依據三種原則使用這些材料 首先是原料 現今我們使用單一原料: 石油 以石油作為屋內暖氣來源、車用燃料、 並且使用絕大多數的材料做成你周遭的物品 我們認識到這是一種有限的資源 而且每一次當你拿到一個包裝, 就是把1.5公升的汽油丟到垃圾桶裡,這實在是一件很瘋的事 第二,我們實在應該盡可能地大量減少使用能源 在製造這些材料上 我說大量減少,因為 10% 是沒什麼作用的 我們應該討論是否降低一半、四分之一、 至十分之一的能源含量 最後,我想這可能是最重要的 我們應該創造一種材料 一種可以融入自然回收系統的材料 這個自然回收系統已存在了幾十億年 我適應,你也適應 一百年來,我的身體無須任何前置作業即可回歸地球 然而,我昨天拿到的郵件包裹 卻會存留上千年 這太瘋狂了
But nature provides us with a really good model here. When a tree's done using its leaves -- its solar collectors, these amazing molecular photon capturing devices -- at the end of a season, it doesn't pack them up, take them to the leaf reprocessing center and have them melted down to form new leaves. It just drops them, the shortest distance possible, to the forest floor, where they're actually upcycled into next year's topsoil. And this gets us back to the mushrooms. Because in nature, mushrooms are the recycling system. And what we've discovered is, by using a part of the mushroom you've probably never seen -- analogous to its root structure; it's called mycelium -- we can actually grow materials with many of the same properties of conventional synthetics.
但自然在這裡提供我們一個相當棒的模型 當一棵樹用完它的葉子後 -- 它的太陽能集熱器,這些了不起的分子光子捕捉裝置 -- 在季節終了的時候 並不是把它們包起來,丟到樹葉處理中心去 讓它們溶化解體,形成新葉 而就只是使樹葉落地,以最短的距離 掉落森林地面 在那,它們實際上循環再造了下一年的表土 這帶我們回到了蘑菇 因為在大自然中 蘑菇就是回收系統 我們所發現的是 藉由一部份你可能從未見過的蘑菇 -- 類似它的根結構。它被稱作菌絲體 -- 事實上,我們可以和許多相同傳統屬性的合成纖維 一起長出材料來
Now, mycelium is an amazing material, because it's a self-assembling material. It actually takes things we would consider waste -- things like seed husks or woody biomass -- and can transform them into a chitinous polymer, which you can form into almost any shape. In our process, we basically use it as a glue. And by using mycelium as a glue, you can mold things just like you do in the plastic industry, and you can create materials with many different properties, materials that are insulating, fire-resistant, moisture-resistant, vapor-resistant -- materials that can absorb impacts, that can absorb acoustical impacts. But these materials are grown from agricultural byproducts, not petroleum. And because they're made of natural materials, they are 100 percent compostable in you own backyard.
菌絲是一種異乎尋常的材料 因為它是一種可以自行組合的材料 事實上,我們可以考慮一些廢棄材料 比如種子外皮或木質生物質 把轉化成它們成幾丁質聚合物 你可以把它們轉化為任何形態 在我們的過程中 基本上,我們把它當成膠水 利用菌絲體作為粘著劑 你可以塑造出你想要的東西,就像在塑膠產業裡 你可以做出許多不同屬性的材料 絕緣的、耐火的、 耐潮濕、耐水氣的、 可以吸收聲響的材料 但是這些材料是從農作物生長出來的副產品 不是石油 此外,由於它們是由自然物質所構成 它們可以 100% 分解於 你家後院
So I'd like to share with you the four basic steps required to make these materials. The first is selecting a feedstock, preferably something that's regional, that's in your area, right -- local manufacturing. The next is actually taking this feedstock and putting in a tool, physically filling an enclosure, a mold, in whatever shape you want to get. Then you actually grow the mycelium through these particles, and that's where the magic happens, because the organism is doing the work in this process, not the equipment. The final step is, of course, the product, whether it's a packaging material, a table top, or building block. Our vision is local manufacturing, like the local food movement, for production. So we've created formulations for all around the world using regional byproducts. If you're in China, you might use a rice husk or a cottonseed hull. If you're in Northern Europe or North America, you can use things like buckwheat husks or oat hulls. We then process these husks with some basic equipment.
我想和你們分享四個 製作這些材料的基礎步驟 首先是選擇原料 最好是地方性的材料,在你周遭附近的材料 -- 本地製造 接著是把這些材料置於工具中 完全地塞進一個 你想要的形狀的模具裡 接著,你使菌絲體成長,通過這些顆粒 在這兒,魔法開始發生了 因為在這個過程中,是有機物質在運作著 而不是設備 最後一個步驟,當然是產品 無論它是包裝材料、書桌、或建築磚頭 我們的眼光是本地製造 就如同本地食材運動,而這是製造業方面的 我們為全世界開發了 使用在地農作副產品的方程式 如果你在中國,你可能會使用稻殼 或棉籽殼 如果你在北歐或北美 你可用蕎麥皮或燕麥殼這些東西 然後,我們以一些基本設備理處理這些稻殼
And I want to share with you a quick video from our facility that gives you a sense of how this looks at scale. So what you're seeing here is actually cotton hulls from Texas, in this case. It's a waste product. And what they're doing in our equipment is going through a continuous system, which cleans, cooks, cools and pasteurizes these materials, while also continuously inoculating them with our mycelium. This gives us a continuous stream of material that we can put into almost any shape, though today we're making corner blocks. And it's when this lid goes on the part, that the magic really starts. Because the manufacturing process is our organism. It'll actually begin to digest these wastes and, over the next five days, assemble them into biocomposites. Our entire facility is comprised of thousands and thousands and thousands of these tools sitting indoors in the dark, quietly self-assembling materials -- and everything from building materials to, in this case, a packaging corner block.
我想與你們快速分享一段關於我們設備的影片 可以瞭解一下它的規模 所以你們在這裡看到的,事實上是來自德州的棉殼 它是廢棄產品 他們在機具裡做的 是一個持續的系統 可以潔淨、調理、冷卻、 加熱殺菌這些原料 同時他們還不斷與我們的菌絲接種 這給我們一個連續的材料源 使我們得以做出任何形狀 雖然今天我們正做著角塊 當這部份的蓋子掀開後 魔法便開始了 因為製造過程是我們的有機生物 它事實上開始消化這些廢棄物 而且,在接下來的五天 會把它們組織成生物複合材料 我們的全部設備 都是由這些上千的工具所組成 待在黑暗之中,靜靜地自行組合材料 所有來自建材的東西 在這個案例中 是一個一包裝角塊
So I've said a number of times that we grow materials. And it's kind of hard to picture how that happens. So my team has taken five days-worth of growth, a typical growth cycle for us, and condensed it into a 15-second time lapse. And I want you to really watch closely these little white dots on the screen, because, over the five-day period, what they do is extend out and through this material, using the energy that's contained in these seed husks to build this chitinous polymer matrix. This matrix self-assembles, growing through and around the particles, making millions and millions of tiny fibers. And what parts of the seed husk we don't digest, actually become part of the final, physical composite. So in front of your eyes, this part just self-assembled. It actually takes a little longer. It takes five days. But it's much faster than conventional farming.
所以我已說了許多次,我們種出材料 要描述這是如何發生的多少有點難度 於是我的團隊收取五天的成長 一個典型的成長循環 把它濃縮為十五秒的間隔攝影 我們想要更清楚地觀看 這些在螢幕前的細小點點 因為,五天的時間裡 他們所做的是延長這種材料, 並且使用那些蘊藏在種子殼中的能源 建造出這種幾丁質的聚合物 這個混合物會自行組合 在粒子的周圍生長 製造出好幾百萬的微小纖維 而關於那些我們無法消化的種子殼, 實際上成了最終物理複合材料的一部份 因此現在各位眼前的,是自行組合的一部份 事實上會花上更長的時間,它需要五天 但是卻比傳統的耕種來得迅速許多
The last step, of course, is application. In this case, we've grown a corner block. A major Fortune 500 furniture maker uses these corner blocks to protect their tables in shipment. They used to use a plastic packaging buffer, but we were able to give them the exact same physical performance with our grown material. Best of all, when it gets to the customer, it's not trash. They can actually put this in their natural ecosystem without any processing, and it's going to improve the local soil.
最後一個步驟,當然是應用的部份了 在這個案例中,我們種植一個角塊 財經雜誌全球500大企業中一間家具製造商 用這些角塊保護在裝運過程中的桌子 他們以前習慣使用塑膠包裝 但我們可以用我們長出來的材料 給予他們相同的物理性能 最重要的是,當它送達的客戶手裡時 它不是垃圾 事實上,他們可以把這放到自然生態系統裡,無須任何處置 而且還可以增進當地的土壤效益
So, why mycelium? The first reason is local open feedstocks. You want to be able to do this anywhere in the world and not worry about peak rice hull or peak cottonseed hulls, because you have multiple choices. The next is self-assembly, because the organism is actually doing most of the work in this process. You don't need a lot of equipment to set up a production facility. So you can have lots of small facilities spread all across the world. Biological yield is really important. And because 100 percent of what we put in the tool become the final product, even the parts that aren't digested become part of the structure, we're getting incredible yield rates.
那麼,為什麼是菌絲體呢? 第一個原因,它是本地的開放原料 你要可以在全世界各地製造 而不必擔心稻殼或棉籽的高價 因為你有多樣的選擇 接著是自行組合 因為實際上,有機物在這一過程中做了絕大部份的工作 你不需要裝設許多機具作為生產設備 所以你可以擁有很多小設施 散播到世界各地 生物產量是非常重要的 而且,我們100%的投入都成為成為最終產品 即使那些未被消化的部分 也成為結構的一部份 我們得到驚人的收益率
Natural polymers, well ... I think that's what's most important, because these polymers have been tried and tested in our ecosystem for the last billion years, in everything from mushrooms to crustaceans. They're not going to clog up Earth's ecosystems. They work great. And while, today, we can practically guarantee that yesterday's packaging is going to be here in 10,000 years, what I want to guarantee is that in 10,000 years, our descendants, our children's children, will be living happily and in harmony with a healthy Earth. And I think that can be some really good news.
天然聚合物,我認為這是最重要的 因為這些聚合物 已在我們的生態系統中經歷了億萬年的考驗 無論是從蘑菇到甲殼類動物等任何東西 它們不會堵塞地球的生態系統,它們一直做得很好 而今天 我們實際上可以保證,昨天的包裝 會留在這裡一萬年 我想要保證的是 在接下來的一萬年 我們的子孫 將會幸福和樂地 住在健康的地球 而我想那應該是個真正的好消息
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
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