Usually when something starts to rot, it gets thrown in the trash. But João Rodríguez wants to overturn the concept of spoilage by breeding bacteria in trash to transform it into something better.
“We're training mushrooms to eat trash and create renewable, bio-based raw materials,” she told TechCrunch.
Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Mycocycle. Mycocycle is one of several startups harnessing nature's recyclers, fungi, to create plastic-like polymers for a post-fossil fuel economy. Today, almost all plastics are made from oil and gas, which accounts for about 3.4% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the OECD.
“We want to be able to compete with the 3Ms, BASFs and Dowses of the world,” Rodriguez said.
That's no small goal. Plastics seem to be everywhere, from food packaging to building materials. According to Grandview Research, thanks to its widespread use, the value of the global plastics industry reaches $ 624 billion.
Mycocycle not only wants to capture a piece of that market, but also inject a vision of circularity by using fungi to literally consume the plastic produced by its competitors.
The company focused on a group of fungi known as white-rot mushrooms. In nature, fungi tend to grow in things like dead leaves and wood, but Mycocycle's mushrooms were chosen for their ability to break down materials produced using oil and gas. The startup uses natural selection to find the best fit for the job, choosing not to genetically modify it. “We drew that line pretty early on,” Rodriguez said.
The treated gypsum waste is ready for use as industrial fillers and foams. Image credit: Mycoworks
When fungi become active, they fill up unwanted organic matter with their root-like hyphae and break it down. Hyphae look similar to plant roots, but they are not made of cellulose like plant fibers. Instead, they are made of chitin, the same chitin that insects use to build their exoskeletons. When these hyphae come into contact with carbon-based molecules, they break them down and use that food source to grow and expand their reach.
Rodriguez said Mycocycle's fungi could work on a wide range of waste materials, including paper, rubber and nylon. In a recent commercial demonstration, the startup grew fungi on drywall scraps left over from the construction of a meta data center. The startup delivered one of its bioprocessors to a nearby garbage collection company, which shredded the drywall and dumped it into the processor along with fungi from Mycocycle. The bioprocessor then maintained the fungi's optimum temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit to 80 degrees Fahrenheit for about two weeks.
Once the cycle is complete, Mycocycle kills the fungus and prevents it from continuing to grow. “We don't want mold back in the building,” Rodriguez said. The end result is a product that can be sold rather than waste that is expensive to dispose of.
The resulting material can be used in a variety of products, including insulation, acoustic panels for acoustic control, and bulk fillers for concrete and other materials. (Fungi only consume the paper that covers the drywall, not the plaster that encases it, so the recycled material from the Metaproject is likely to be filler.) Fungi don't consume all the rubber; The rubber is wrapped in a network of mycelium. Rodriguez said all of this can be done again when Mycocycle reaches the end of its lifespan.
Two Mycocycle employees prepare the company's mycelium-based treatment. Image credit: Mycoworks
Mycoycle, which Rodriguez founded in 2018, is currently working on improving the process for recycling crumb rubber, a waste product generated from old tires. This is a huge potential market, with approximately 280 million units produced each year in the United States.
To continue its research and development and commercialization efforts, the company has raised $3.6 million in seed expansion funding, the company exclusively tells TechCrunch. The round was led by Closed Loop Partners and included investments from Illinois Invent Fund, Telus Pollinator Fund for Good, and US Venture.
Rodriguez said Mycocycle will bring in more than $1 million in revenue this year. “Margins will be positive.” Perhaps the most promising part of the business is the crumb rubber processing part, she added.
“One of the strategic investors in this round is particularly focused on this rubber market at scale for the very reason that tires have been recycled the same way for 40 years,” she said. “They recognize the risks, but they also recognize the opportunities.”