This photo provided by the South Chungcheong Provincial Livestock Research Institute shows mushroom medium.
SEOUL, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) — The mushroom medium that is dumped after harvesting mushrooms can be recycled as a bedding material for barn floors, a local research institute said Thursday.
The medium refers to the culture soil used for growing mushrooms, which mainly consists of sawdust. Typically, after harvesting mushrooms, the medium is disposed of as waste.
The South Chungcheong Provincial Livestock Research Institute conducted an experiment in which it mixed the mushroom medium with deodorant and a moisture control agent in a specific ratio.
After doing so, it spread the mixture in two livestock barns and monitored the effects for 75 days.
The experiment showed that the usage period was equivalent to 80-90 percent of that of normal sawdust, and there was no significant difference in terms of the generation of bad odors.
The cost was 30 percent cheaper than existing bedding materials. Mushroom farms can also save on the expense of disposing of the medium that remains after harvesting mushrooms.
In Cheongyang County alone, about 2,000 tons of mushroom medium are dumped each year after harvesting shiitake mushrooms, with the annual disposal cost estimated at approximately 400 million won (US$300,570).
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
