SMUSH Materials

Founded in Italy in 2024, SMUSH Materials is a material tech start-up with the mission of transforming local agricultural by-products into industrial packaging designed to disappear, reducing environmental impact across the entire lifecycle. These solutions are made from a new generation of circular composite materials engineered to replace single-use plastics, particularly foams and expanded plastics (EPS, EPP, EPE), in industrial and design applications.

The materials are created by combining agricultural by-products and mushroom mycelium, transformed through a proprietary fermentation process into 100% compostable structural components, certified TÜV Austria OK Industrial Compost. The result is a lightweight yet high mechanical strength material, naturally shock-absorbing, with performance comparable to EPS with lower CO₂ emissions. The solutions are designed to be price-competitive and aligned with upcoming European directives (PPWR).

SMUSH develops both standard formats and custom solutions for fragile and high-performance components. The technology has already been tested in relevant industrial environments and is currently in the scale-up phase.

At The New State of Materials, the company showcases custom packaging solutions for heavy industrial components and fragile items, together with samples of agricultural by-products and finished materials that illustrate the growth and production process, as well as a sample box featuring standard packaging solutions.