Life Box
How many trees are wasted for cardboard boxes? Moreover, how many packages do you receive have multiple boxes when you order something online? Well mycologist and mycomimicry Paul Stamets has an innovative solution that allows you to simply put your cardboard box I the nearest plot of soil to start growing baby trees. Paul Stamets Life Box can be made to virtually any dimension, does not increase the cost of shipping, and the tree seed mix has been approved by the Department of Agriculture for planting in every state in the continental United States (not Hawaii), and Canada.
If you do the math it is quite impressive what one could achieve with this clever box: a 1-2% share of the cardboard box market in the United States could cover up to 25,000 acres of land per week! Of the hundreds of tree seeds in each box, if only one survives for 30 years, approximately one ton of carbon will be sequestered. Therefore, the potential for coverage by trees coming from Life Boxes™ expands from 25,000 acres to 25,000,000 acres per week.
The Life Boxes™ can have many forms and we can make them to practically any dimension. Here are just a few of the many that are possible.
- DVD/CD mailers
- Pizza boxes
- Shoe boxes
- Sleeves for hot beverage cups
Paul Stamets says “the Life Box™ is a form of social as well as ecological currency and a shovel ready do-it-yourself climate change solution“. Planting trees also provides more shade for buildings to reduce the use of air-conditioning, helps the soil hold more moisture, preserves aquifers and even prevents flooding in cities as Andy Lipkis has demonstrated in LA. The Life Box™ is manufactured in the United States using recycled cardboard and soy-based inks. So what are you waiting for? Go plant one today
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