Our dependence on plastics is a major environmental issue. Plastic barely degrades, and it’s filling our landfills and oceans faster than we can get rid of it. But scientists and designers have come up with a viable replacement for plastic in many of its applications: fungus.

Motherboard correspondent Alejandro Tauber traveled to Utrecht University in the Netherlands to meet some of these scientists and designers involved in making this vision a reality. Maybe we can look forward to a day where we can just toss our packing materials in the yard, without causing environmental havoc. Let’s hope that moment comes sooner rather than later.