In 2011, the Finnish robotics company ZenRobotics tackled waste management with their robotic waste sorter.
A Chicago-based science tech company, Mycocycle, has turned to nature to manage waste and is training fungi to break down and detoxify demolition and construction materials.
With a recent oversubscribed round of $3.6 million, the company has raised a total of $7.3 million, including investors from Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, US Venture, Inc., and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity INVENT Fund.
Joanne Rodriguez, CEO and founder of Mycocycle, said fungi are natural cleaners and builders. “They’re really good at breaking down a wide variety of organic materials, which made them the perfect solution for a tricky problem,” said Rodriguez.
The idea came to Rodriguez when she had to start a recycling program at a roofing company. “I quickly realized it was a near-impossible task: less than four percent of all roofing materials were recycled. I knew we had a problem,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez says she didn’t realize that fungi would be the solution at first. “I took a course in permaculture design from Oregon State University and was fascinated by the power of fungi—specifically their ability to transform waste into low-carbon material.”
“After speaking with citizen scientists and trailblazing mycologists, all passionate about fungi’s untapped potential to help us improve societal and ecological health, I knew I was on the right track,” said Rodriguez. “From there, I combined old shingles and fungal spores in a bucket, filed a patent right away, and started my journey toward founding Mycocycle.”
Mycocycle’s bioremediation process blends the treatment with built-environment waste such as asphalt shingles, rubber, gypsum boards, insulation lining and old textiles. It then transforms that waste into non-toxic, high-quality raw materials.
“I was looking for a natural solution to a very human problem, and mycology quickly became the obvious choice,” added Rodriguez.
Circularity in waste management
Repurposing waste into raw materials for new products
Mycocycle’s circular waste-to-value system diverts some of the roughly 145 million tons of construction debris sent to landfills annually. This process decarbonizes a market responsible for close to a third of the US’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Mycocycle uses fungi as the tech to break down and detoxify the waste materials and produces harvestable raw materials that can be used in products such as industrial fillers, fibers or foams.
“Our process mirrors how fungi operate in nature: we create an environment in which they’ll thrive and then let them get to work,” said Rodriguez. “We’re focused on mycelium, the root-like structure of the fungi. The mycelium’s hyphae, or root-like structures, break down carbon-based molecules—like paper, rubber or nylon.”
Rodriquez says fungi don’t need sterile, lab-based environments.
“We can help our customers use fungi to break down and detoxify waste materials at their own demolition and construction sites,” said Rodriguez.
Customers host a mobile bioprocessor called a MYCOntainer. The containers have everything the mycelium needs—food, water and a comfortable climate. In the container, Mycocyle mixes waste fragments with the mycelium treatment and lets the fungi go to work for two weeks.
“For some waste types, like carpet, we treat them at the same cost of incineration and other harmful disposal methods,” said Rodriguez. “There is no waste in nature and fungi can grow in almost any environment around the globe.
“We make an environment in which they can thrive and then get out of their way—it’s as basic as brewing beer — we’re just making a strange brew,” added Rodriguez.
Construction materials manufacturing accounts for 11 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. Rodriguez says that means there is a massive market for the company. “The tide is turning toward accepting and acting on sustainability. We’re already working with some of the biggest construction, industrial and manufacturing companies to create a true waste-to-value chain in a circular economy.”
The next Mycology generation
Students use Mycology to investigate environmental improvements and nutrition
Two high school seniors at Plano West High School in Plano, Texas, used fungi in award-winning science projects. Yizhen Zhang and Zaynab Abbas, both 17, used mycology to decompose complex harmful pollutants that could serve as an incentive for textile manufacturing regions to clean dye pollution in their waterways.
Their project, Pathogen to Ally: Evaluating Armillaria Species in Mycoremediation—A Novel Study in Optimal Fungal Mechanisms for Breakdown of Complex Hydrocarbons, took third place at the 2024 Texas Science & Engineering Fair at Texas A&M University. Both students have come in first for the past two years at the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair at Southern Methodist University.
“Mycology has significant potential to impact healthcare and environmental clean-up,” said Zhang. “However, to maximize this potential, we must promote greater public interest and awareness without stigma. Increasing public knowledge about the benefits and possibilities of mycology can inspire younger generations to pursue careers in this field, leading to more innovations and advancements.”
Raina Hassan and Jerusha Abraham, their classmates, used mycology to repurpose agricultural waste to increase the nutritional value of pink oyster mushrooms for application in regions with scarce food supplies. Their project, The Effects of Agro-waste Substrates in the Gallic Acid Content of Pleurotus Djamor, was a finalist at the Texas Science & Engineering Fair in 2024.
“Our project, similar to Mycocycle, involved using fungi to eat waste for a larger purpose,” said Abraham. “However, instead of repurposing the waste into raw materials, our project focused on using our knowledge of the overlooked nutrients found in these waste materials to manipulate the fungi’s nutritional composition.”
Abraham, who plans to study biomedical engineering in college, says that looking at overlooked nutrients in agro-waste materials is a further testament to the versatility of fungi and how they can be utilized to solve real-world problems.
“Mycology is such an overlooked and under-researched field despite its many applications,” said Abraham. “I’d like to see mycology be more recognized around the world because more knowledge about fungi can help further the existing research and use fungi to create new innovations to help combat issues like pollution, climate change, and disease.”
Decarbonizing the construction supply chain
Fungi store one-third of the carbon in the soil
“They were the creators and facilitators of the greatest ecosystems on earth,” said Rodriguez. “As we continue to adapt their technology to our man-made issues, we believe this will be the ingredient of the future—lowering carbon emissions around the world.”
Mycocycle’s output is not a finished product but a biobased raw material that goes into creating a product.
“Think fillers, fibers and foams,” said Rodriquez. “These raw materials require less energy to go to market, and they’re more sustainable than their counterparts made from plastic polymers or petroleum chemicals.”
Rodriquez says the company sells the raw materials to manufacturers who make the product. “We’re just feeding into it — and decarbonizing the construction material supply chain.”
Fungi exploration
“The most exciting thing about mycology is that there’s still so much to explore in the field,” said Rodriguez. “The applications are endless—from healthcare to agriculture, to CPGs and biotechnology—we’re only scratching the surface of what fungi can do.”
Mycocycle says they are building a platform company extending beyond circular treatments for construction and industrial waste. “We anticipate the ability to address other waste issues like textiles as we grow and how we work with fungi to lead the way for others to develop biobased solutions for the future.”
“Using nature to fix problems plaguing the natural world is a really beautiful thing because it reduces the further harm caused by man-made or chemical solutions, said Abraham. “Not only that, but fungi are such an overlooked food source, and its abundance of nutrients and fast-growing pace can help regions struggling with food insecurity.”
Zhang, who plans to major in Biology, Microbiology, and Immunology in college, says Mycology has already begun to change the world in areas such as pollution clean-up, alternative food sources and materials, and medicine. “In addition to its current uses, I see many new avenues for Mycology start-up companies in the future, including biocomputers and sensors, as well as new antibiotics.”
