FFrom the outside, it looks like a regular diaper – one of the tens of billions that end up in landfill every year. But Hiro diapers have an unusual companion: a packet of freeze-dried mushrooms that you can sprinkle on your baby's cloudy waste.
The idea is to set off a catalytic process that turns the entire diaper—plastic and all—into compost within a year.
Hiro was one of several innovations recognized this week The future belongs to mushroomswhich celebrates groundbreaking innovation using fungi to solve some of the planet's most pressing environmental challenges.
Several forces are converging to bring fungi into the spotlight, said Professor Andrew Adamacki of the University of the West of England in Bristol, who is researching whether fungi can be incorporated into unconventional computing circuits.
“First, people are beginning to understand that fungi are not plants or animals, but are their own vast and largely unexplored kingdom with extraordinary biological capabilities,” he said. “Second, practical demonstrations—fungal packaging, fungal skin, fungal insulation, and even fungal electronics—have shown that these organisms can replace or complement many industrial materials. Third, we face pressing global challenges: waste, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate stress.
“Fungi thrive in environments that people consider harsh or dirty, and they can turn low-value resources into something useful. They are timely organisms with exactly the properties we need now.”
Central to this promise is the mycelium: the thread-like network that forms the main part of the mushroom. It can be grown into strong, lightweight materials using only agricultural waste, and some species secrete powerful enzymes that can break down wood, petroleum-like compounds and various plastics.
This dual ability to build structures and digest complex molecules makes mushrooms incredibly versatile. Mycelium can be grown into building materials, turned into biodegradable foam, used to clean up polluted environments, or used as biological factories to synthesize chemicals.
Soft plastic typically takes centuries to decompose, but Hiro's goal is to shorten that process to 12 months by infusing the plastic with a proprietary blend of fungi that activates in response to moisture from babies' excretions. According to Hiro founder and CEO Mika Agrawal, the fungi thrive in low-oxygen landfills and secrete enzymes that quickly digest the carbon base of plastic without leaving behind microplastics.
“We have now shown that we can do this in our laboratory in less than six months, and we are now testing the diapers in conditions that simulate a landfill in a natural environment,” Agrawal said.
Scientists agree that this approach is plausible—up to a point. “Fungi have the ability to break down some plastics, especially polyurethane, polyester-based plastics and some composite materials. It works well in the lab and continues to improve,” Adamacki said. “However, polyethylene and polypropylene remain resilient. Some fungi can slowly break them down, but the pace is currently too slow for landfill remediation on an industrial scale.”
Plastics are just one area where fungus grows. Two of this year's award winners, Michroma and Mycolever, aim to transform mushrooms into living chemical factories that produce greener alternatives to petrochemical-derived additives, including natural food colors and emulsifiers used in cosmetics and toiletries. Traditional versions are often carbon-intensive or rely on environmentally harmful supply chains; fungal fermentation offers a cleaner, more flexible route.
Part of this flexibility comes from the fungi themselves. While bacteria and yeast often require genetic engineering to create new chemicals, the broader fungal kingdom offers a much broader natural repertoire that may require little or no engineering.
“Over the past few decades, we've learned that there are about 5.1 million species of fungi on this planet. Advances in technology have also allowed scientists to sequence many of them, which means we know a lot more about what they do—and we've learned that they can do a lot,” said Britta Winterberg, CEO and founder of Mycolever, which uses fungi to synthesize an emulsifier for personal care products.
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Fungi's more complex metabolism also allows them to produce more complex compounds. “Filamentous fungi are inherently potent producers of complex secondary metabolites, including many of the world's most vibrant pigments,” said Ricky Cassini, CEO of Michroma, which uses them to produce natural food colorings. “Their innate ability to release metabolites simplifies downstream processing and makes them ideal for producing food coloring at the throughput required by industry.”
And unlike yeast and bacteria, which typically require highly controlled conditions, many fungi are less demanding. “They grow on cheap, low-value substrates—sawdust, straw, cardboard, agricultural byproducts—and often tolerate contamination that can destroy bacterial cultures,” Adamacki said.
Another new application is based on the natural heat-resistant properties of mycelium. “The cell walls of fungi contain materials that can resist heat, potentially making them suitable for fire protection or insulation – both for insulating houses, insulating packaging materials and fighting real fires,” said Dr Yasser Turki. His Jordan-based company Metanovation is developing a mycelium-based firefighting foam that, unlike synthetic foams that often leach PFAS “perpetual chemicals” into the soil, can be grown on waste and decompose naturally after use.
One of the most intriguing areas is the use of fungi in sensors and electronics – an idea that may seem like science fiction, but is already being explored in laboratories.
Researchers have shown that materials infused with living mycelium can behave like simple electronic parts: They can pulse like tiny oscillators, briefly store signals like capacitors, and filter information like basic circuits do. Grown in fabric or foam, they also respond to light, pressure and chemicals, making living sensors more likely to grow, self-heal, continually adapt to their environment, and biodegrade when no longer needed.
Adamacki's group is among those experimenting with the electrical behavior of mycelial networks. “In the lab, we can record the natural electrical impulses of the mycelium and use them in biosensing, soft robotics or unconventional computing,” he said. “Few biological systems are so versatile.”
Full-scale fungal electronics remain speculative for now. But the goal of the Future is Fungi Awards is to accelerate exactly this type of innovation at an early stage. “This award exists to support the boldest visionaries transforming mushroom science into systemic change,” said Suzanne Glersen, Founding CEO. “Fungi are nature's original engineers. We're just giving them the platform they deserve.”
Still, as unusual as mushrooms are, Adamacki cautioned against assuming they could—or should—replace any traditional technology. “When used correctly, mushrooms are powerful allies,” he said. “These organisms can make industries more sustainable, create new materials and help restore the environment, but they must be part of a broader technological and social shift.”
Self-compostable diapers can be a small step towards this goal. But their development also points to a broader truth: in the search for solutions to man-made problems, some of them may already be quietly trailing beneath our feet.
