Process using mushrooms to turn waste materials into new construction products

Mycocycle is addressing this problem by using “mycoremediation” to remove the harmful toxins, divert this waste stream from landfills, and create a new bio-based product that can be used as a building product to replace plastics and other petrochemicals.

Mycocycle uses a patent-pending process that harnesses the power of mushrooms to clean harmful toxins from waste streams and create a new bio-based material that can be reused instead of being sent to a landfill where it would either be burned or buried. The waste stream now becomes a resource that creates a value stream in an average of 4-weeks. Although Mycocycle specialise in construction and demolition waste, they are moving into other sectors, such as medical waste, as well. The process is a stand alone solution that can be done on-site and we have been able to reduce PAHs by an average of 95% and Phthalates by an average of 85%.

The resulting material is a more environmentally friendly substitute for industrial uses such as Styrofoam, insulation, packaging, building materials and multiple other applications where plastics have been previously been utilised. It is lightweight, has insulative properties and offers water and fire resistance.

Costs equal the current national average of landfilling materials. Mycelium composites are cost competitive with both synthetic foams and wood products, with the raw materials of mycelium composites (0.07-.17/ $US/kg) constituting the cost of the agricultural and industrial by-products used to make them much lower than the wholesale price of polystyrene (2.1-2.3 $US/kg), polyurethane (8.2-10.4 $US/kg), phenolic formaldehyde resin (1.7-1.9 $US/kg), foams and plywood (0.5-1.1 $US/kg), softwood (0.7-1.4 $US/kg) and hardwood (3-11 $US/kg) products.

Taken from: Engineered mycelium composite construction materials from fungal biorefineries: A critical review Mitchell Jones a,b, Andreas Mautner b, Stefano Luenco c, Alexander Bismarck b,⁎, Sabu Johna,⁎ a School of Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora East Campus, PO Box 71, Bundoora 3083, VIC, Australia b Institute of Material Chemistry and Research, Polymer and Composite Engineering (PaCE) Group.