A CEO is giving new meaning to the term "magic mushrooms," and it could prove to be a boon for the planet. As detailed by TechCrunch, Joanne Rodriguez, the founder and CEO of Mycocycle, which was founded in 2018, wants to use mushrooms to turn trash into treasure — or at least into usable materials.
Mushrooms are natural recyclers that break down organic materials like dead trees, leaves, roots, and other plant parts and recycle the nutrients for living growing plants. Mycocycle is a startup that uses fungi's natural tendency to decompose waste and recycles it into plastic-like polymers that can replace polluting products.
"We train mushrooms to eat trash and create renewable, bio-based raw materials," Rodriguez told TechCrunch.
Almost all plastics are made from dirty energy sources like oil and gas, and they are found just about everywhere, from food packaging to our clothing to building materials. Due to its overreaching use, TechCrunch reports that the global plastics industry is worth $624 billion, according to Grand View Research.
Not only does that much plastic make a ton of money, but it also creates a staggering amount of waste — about 40 million tons a year in the United States alone — that wreaks havoc on the planet.
Recycling this waste into something new reduces the amount of methane-producing trash crowding our landfills and choking our oceans. In turn, this helps protect communities from the effects of an overheating planet, like worsening extreme weather events, and shields our food supply and our bodies from the impacts of plastic pollution.
With its mushrooms, Mycocycle hopes to capture a portion of the billion-dollar plastics market while simultaneously consuming the plastics produced by its competition. Magic mushrooms, indeed.
The company uses white-rot mushrooms chosen for their natural ability to break down materials produced using oil and gas, which means it didn't have to genetically modify them.
Rodriguez told TechCrunch the mushrooms work on all kinds of waste, including paper, rubber, and nylon. The company's website explains that the mushrooms' mycelial networks reduce the toxicity of the materials while transforming them via biosorption, bioconversion, and biodegredation.
The resulting naturally occurring material is fire- and water-resistant, insulative, durable, and lightweight, making it the perfect sustainable raw material for the building industry. The circular process reduces planet-warming pollution, and the result is a product that can be sold as opposed to waste a company would have to pay to dispose of.
Currently, Mycocycle is focusing on refining its process for recycling crumb rubber — the waste created from old tires — a product that the U.S. produces about 280 million of annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.
Other companies are also using mushrooms in renewable energy storage, sustainable construction, and to reduce cigarette waste. While we may not all be able to make magic from mushrooms, we can reduce the need for other materials by switching to plastic-free alternatives for daily products and reducing plastic waste on the planet.
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