Tests highlight shoe potential for La Rioja’s mushroom waste
CTCR, the specialist footwear technology centre for manufacturers in La Rioja in northern Spain, has reported significant progress in a project to develop a new antibacterial and anti-fungal biomaterial suitable for use in footwear.
The material derives from mycelium, the body of vegetation from which mushrooms grow. When the fungus grows, CTCR has explained, it endows the mycelium with antibacterial properties.
“This is the basis for the new biomaterial,” the Arnedo-based body said. “It is suitable for use in footwear components, which come into continuous contact with micro-organisms through the atmosphere and through wearer’s skin.”
Tests at CTCR have confirmed the new biomaterial’s antibacterial properties, measured against the ISO 20645 and other standards. It has concluded that the material is “perfectly suitable” for use in textiles and nonwoven felt fabrics for insoles and other footwear components.
La Rioja is a small region, but is Spain’s largest producer of mushrooms, CTCR said, with 55% of the national output and production reaching more than 70,000 tonnes per year. Mushrooms are the region’s second-most important agricultural product, after wine.
However, the footwear research body has pointed out that this level of mushroom production results in around 40,000 tonnes per year of mycelium that has to be treated as waste imposing an annual cost of around €200,000.
It said that, with the market for materials produced from waste recycling on the rise, it was optimistic about convincing local shoe manufacturers to use its new mycelium-based biomaterial.
