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F<\/span>rom the outside, it looks like any ordinary nappy \u2013 one of the tens of billions that end up in landfill each year. But the Hiro diaper comes with an unusual companion: a sachet of freeze-dried fungi to sprinkle over a baby\u2019s gloopy excretions.<\/p>\n The idea is to kickstart a catalytic process that could see the entire nappy \u2013 plastics and all \u2013 broken down into compost within a year.<\/p>\n Hiro was one of several innovations recognised this week by the Future is Fungi Awards, which honour groundbreaking innovations using fungi to tackle some of the planet\u2019s most urgent environmental challenges.<\/p>\n Several forces are converging to put fungi in the spotlight, said Prof Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England in Bristol, who is investigating whether fungi could be incorporated into unconventional computing circuits.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, people are beginning to appreciate that fungi are neither plants nor animals, but their own vast and largely unexplored kingdom with extraordinary biological abilities,\u201d he said. \u201cSecond, practical demonstrations \u2013 fungal packaging, fungal leather, fungal insulation, even fungal electronics \u2013 have shown that these organisms can replace or augment many industrial materials. Third, we\u2019re facing urgent global challenges: waste, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate stress.<\/p>\n \u201cFungi thrive in environments that humans consider harsh or dirty, and they can turn low-value resources into something useful. They are timely organisms with exactly the sort of properties we now need.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Hiro nappies come with a sachet of fungus to sprinkle over them to kickstart their breakdown.<\/span> Photograph: Hiro<\/p>\n Central to this promise is mycelium: the thread-like network that forms the bulk of a fungus. It can be grown into strong, lightweight materials using little more than agricultural waste, and some species secrete powerful enzymes capable of breaking down wood, petroleum-like compounds and various plastics.<\/p>\n This dual ability \u2013 building structures and digesting complex molecules \u2013 make fungi unusually versatile. Mycelium can be grown into building materials, turned into biodegradable foams, used to clean up contaminated environments, or harnessed as biological factories to synthesise chemicals.<\/p>\n Soft plastics typically take centuries to decompose, but Hiro\u2019s goal is to compress this into 12 months by embedding plastics with a proprietary blend of fungi that activates in response to the moisture from babies\u2019 excretions. The fungi happily grow in oxygen-poor landfill conditions and secrete enzymes that rapidly digest the carbon backbone of plastics, leaving no microplastics behind, said Hiro\u2019s founder and CEO, Miki Agrawal.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, we\u2019ve shown that we\u2019re able to do this in our lab in under six months, and now we\u2019re testing the diapers in simulated landfill conditions in natural environments,\u201d said Agrawal.<\/p>\n Scientists agree the approach is plausible \u2013 up to a point. \u201cFungi absolutely have the ability to degrade certain plastics \u2013 especially polyurethane, polyester-based plastics, and some composite materials. In the lab, this works well and continues to improve,\u201d said Adamatzky. \u201cBut polyethylene and polypropylene remain stubbornly resistant. Some fungi can slowly erode them, but the rates are currently far too slow for industrial-scale landfill remediation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Fungal mycelium can be grown into strong, lightweight materials.<\/span> Photograph: Justin Long\/Alamy<\/p>\n Plastics are only one arena in which fungi are advancing. Two of this year\u2019s award winners \u2013 Michroma and Mycolever \u2013 aim to turn fungi into living chemical factories that produce greener alternatives to petrochemical-derived additives, including natural food colourings and emulsifiers used in cosmetics and toiletries. Traditional versions are often carbon-intensive or rely on environmentally damaging supply chains; fungal fermentation offers a cleaner, more flexible route.<\/p>\n Part of that flexibility comes from fungi themselves. Whereas bacteria and yeasts often need genetic engineering to make new chemicals, the broader fungal kingdom offers a much wider natural repertoire that may require no, or only minimal, engineering.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last few decades, we\u2019ve figured out that there are an estimated 5.1 million species of fungi on this planet. Advances in technology have also allowed scientists to sequence many of them, meaning we know much more about what they do \u2013 and we\u2019ve realised they\u2019re capable of so much,\u201d said Britta Winterberg, the CEO and founder of Mycolever, which is using fungi to synthesise an emulsifier for personal care products.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>Scientists are using fungi to rapidly digest plastics in landfills.<\/span> Photograph: angellodeco\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Fungi\u2019s more complex metabolisms also allow them to produce more complex compounds. \u201cFilamentous fungi are naturally strong producers of complex secondary metabolites, including many of the world\u2019s most vibrant pigments,\u201d said Ricky Cassini, the CEO of Michroma, which is using them to make natural food dyes. \u201cTheir innate ability to secrete metabolites simplifies downstream processing and makes them ideal for producing food colourants with the performance the industry requires.\u201d<\/p>\n And unlike yeasts and bacteria, which usually need tightly controlled conditions, many fungi are less demanding. \u201cThey grow on cheap, low-value substrates \u2013 sawdust, straw, cardboard, agricultural by-products \u2013 and they often tolerate contamination that would destroy bacterial cultures,\u201d Adamatzky said.<\/p>\n Another emerging application draws on the natural heat-resistant properties of mycelium. \u201cThe cell walls of fungi contain materials that can resist heat, potentially making them suitable for fire-retarding efforts or insulation \u2013 either insulating houses, insulated packaging materials or fighting real-life fires,\u201d said Dr Yassir Turki. His Jordan-based company, Metanovation, is developing a mycelium-based firefighting foam which, unlike synthetic foams that often leach PFAS \u201cforever chemicals\u201d into the soil, could be grown on waste materials and biodegrade naturally after use.<\/p>\n <\/span>Scientists are experimenting with the electrical behaviour of mycelial networks.<\/span> Photograph: Pawich Sattalerd\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n One of the most intriguing frontiers is the use of fungi in sensing and electronics \u2013 an idea that may sound like science fiction but is already being explored in laboratories.<\/p>\n Researchers have shown that materials infused with living mycelium can behave a bit like simple electronic parts: they can pulse like tiny oscillators, briefly store signals like capacitors, and filter information the way basic circuits do. Grown into fabrics or foams, they also respond to light, pressure and chemicals, raising the possibility of living sensors that grow, self-repair, continually adapt to their environment and biodegrade when no longer needed.<\/p>\n Adamatzky\u2019s group is among those experimenting with the electrical behaviour of mycelial networks. \u201cIn the laboratory, we can record natural electrical spikes from mycelium and use them in bio-sensing, soft robotics, or unconventional computing,\u201d he said. \u201cFew biological systems are so multifunctional.\u201d<\/p>\n Full-scale fungal electronics remain speculative for now. But the aim of the Future is Fungi Awards is to accelerate precisely this kind of early-stage innovation. \u201cThis award exists to support the boldest visionaries turning fungal science into systemic change\u201d said Susanne Gl\u00f8ersen, the founding CEO. \u201cFungi are nature\u2019s original engineers. We\u2019re simply giving them the platform they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, extraordinary as fungi are, Adamatzky warned against assuming they could \u2013 or should \u2013 replace every conventional technology. \u201cWhen used in the right context, fungi are powerful allies,\u201d he said. \u201cThese organisms can make industry more sustainable, create new materials, and help with environmental repair, but they must be part of a broader technological and social shift.\u201d<\/p>\n Self-composting nappies could be a small step towards this goal. But their development also points to a larger truth: in the search for solutions to man-made problems, some of them may already be weaving quietly beneath out feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the outside, it looks like any ordinary nappy \u2013 one of the tens of billions that end up in landfill each year. But the Hiro diaper comes with an unusual companion: a sachet of freeze-dried fungi to sprinkle over a baby\u2019s gloopy excretions. 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