back to article Dell samples shrooms for server shipping

Dell will begin shipping its PowerEdge R710 rack server in übergreen packaging made from – wait for it – mushrooms. "While it sounds unusual, this is an advanced biotechnology," writes Dell procurement director Oliver Campbell on the Direct2Dell blog, calling mushroom packaging "a way to utilize common agricultural waste …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anton Ivanov
    Flame

    Interesting

    So what happens if I put my server in storage in a dark place as a spare for the next 6-8 months. Does it sprout spore bearing bodies? Do we get new baby servers growing out of the walls of the server room?

    Or more realistically, do we have all boxes in the server room bond together so you have to use a BlackDecker Scorpion and a crowbar to get something off the shelves?

    No thanks, I like my packaging throughly and fully dead thank you.

    1. Monkey Bob
      FAIL

      RTFA

      And don't worry about spreading fungi throughout your data center. "At the end of the process," Ecovative Design writes, "we treat EcoCradle with heat to stop the growth so there will never be any spores."

      1. Jerome 0
        Boffin

        Look at you, hacker

        Sure, they say they kill it, but that's how these things always start. A few months down the line and you've got a server room that looks like a scene out of System Shock 2. What are Dell tech support going to do for you then? Send one of their pathetic creatures of meat and bone to clean up the mess they've created? I don't think so.

  2. Richard Jukes

    Read the article

    They heat treat it to 'kill' it. Furthermore, shush. It is a good, if albeit 'strange' idea.

  3. SminkyBazzA
    Thumb Up

    TEDtastic

    This is the first example of something I've seen on a TEDtalk being used in the real world, excellent.

    Check out the (~8 minute) video here: http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.html

  4. Horridbloke
    Paris Hilton

    Employee benefits

    Can the packaging be safely eaten? Will Dell be offering a choice of flavours or at least a satchet of soy sauce in the near future?

    Paris because {TODO: insert double-entendre}

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      already done

      Isn't the "satchet of soy sauce" the double-entendre?

      Maybe I've been on the Internet too long...

  5. adnim

    Excellent idea

    Once the server is installed one could turn the packaging into a nice soup for lunch? Perhaps they could provide a sachet of cream with the server.

    1. The BigYin
      Coffee/keyboard

      You owe me...

      ...one keyboard.

  6. Chris Seiter

    alternative to the alternative

    "In 5 - 7 days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium envelops the by-products, binding them into a strong and beautiful packaging part."

    They could have just used ground up Emos. Same growing process and probably more eco friendly.

  7. K. Adams
    Alert

    "... utilize common ag-waste products such as cotton, rice, and wheat chaff ..."

    Seems like a neat idea, until you run into that one-in-several-million person who will suffer a severe allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock) upon opening the box...

    Of course, the more improbable something is, the more likely it is to happen, which means that Dell should be getting dragged into a personal injury lawsuit by some poor sap over this idea in reasonably short order.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Soup

    Dell Campell's Mushroom soup - created by multiple server deliveries overheating? Yummy

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