Luxury candle company introduces carbon-negative packaging

Agricultural waste mixed with mycelium creates individual boxes that keep the candles and their porcelain containers safe during international shipping

Spotted: High-end candle company Amen’s vegan products are now packaged in carbon-negative biodegradable containers. Made from mycelium mixed with local agricultural waste, the cylindrical boxes capture more carbon dioxide than they emit during production and shipping. Amen candles are vegan and made from vegetable oil and with no paraffin.

Amen’s candles are handmade in Grasse, France, and the new packaging incorporates a range of farm waste products. Biotechnology startup Grown developed the packaging for Amen by using a manual production process developed by material science company Ecovative. Each candle is shipped in an individual cylindrical box that takes five days to grow and two days to dehydrate, to strengthen the box for final use. The boxes can be reused after shipping or composted and used as fertiliser.

Over the years, Springwise has spotted mycelium used to grow vegan leather and headphones, among many other things, and designers continue experimenting with bioproducts, often in unexpected ways. What is needed now is an economy of scale, to allow mycelium to be used more widely and for its positive environmental effects to become truly valuable.

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