A dram good idea turns whisky waste into packaging

Here’s something that’s got me genuinely excited – the whisky industry is stepping up its sustainability game in a way that could fundamentally change how we think about packaging waste. The MycoPack project has just landed funding through Scotland Beyond Net Zero, and it’s exactly the kind of innovation our industry needs.

What they’re doing is brilliant in its simplicity: taking spent grain and other by-products from whisky production and transforming them into packaging materials using mycelium – essentially the root network of fungi. Arbikie Distillery is leading the charge alongside Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Dundee, which gives me real confidence this isn’t just academic theorizing.

Kirsty Black from Arbikie puts it perfectly when she talks about this being “deeply aligned with our values.” That’s the thing about distilleries doing sustainability right – it’s not a marketing afterthought, it’s baked into their DNA. And the technical specs they’re targeting are impressive: impact-resistant, fire-retardant, and fully compostable. If they can nail those properties, this could genuinely replace plastic packaging across the board.

The project’s got 10 months to prove the concept works, which feels like a realistic timeline for something this ambitious. What’s particularly encouraging is that this is part of a broader push – Scotland Beyond Net Zero has now funded 19 collaborative projects with around £300k total. Professor Nick Forsyth from Aberdeen makes a crucial point about collaboration being essential for hitting net zero targets. You can’t solve these challenges in isolation.

The circular economy aspect is what really gets me. We’re talking about turning production waste into something that actively supports sustainability goals. That’s the kind of thinking that could ripple out across the entire drinks industry and beyond.