Fungi added to dirty diaper before it is thrown away
Could baby poop and fungi work together to tackle landfill waste? That's the idea behind a new product launched by an Austin, Texas-based startup that sells disposable diapers paired with fungi intended to break down the plastic.Each of Hiro Technologies' MycoDigestible Diapers comes with a packet of fungi to be added to the dirty diaper before it is thrown in the trash. After a week or two, the fungi are activated by moisture from feces, urine and the environment to begin the process of biodegradation.Disposable diapers contribute significantly to landfill waste. An estimated 4 million tons of diapers were disposed of in the United States in 2018, with no significant recycling or composting, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Diapers take hundreds of years to naturally break down. That means the very first disposable diaper ever used is still in a landfill somewhere.To tackle this, Hiro Technologies turned to fungi. These organisms - which include mushrooms, molds, yeasts and mildew - derive nutrients from decomposing organic matter. In 2011, Yale University researchers discovered a type of fungus in Ecuador that can feed on polyurethane, a common polymer in plastic products. They figured the fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, would be capable of surviving on plastic in environments lacking oxygen, like landfills.Hiro Technologies co-founder Tero Isokauppila, a Finnish entrepreneur who also founded medicinal mushroom company Four Sigmatic, said there are more than 100 species of fungi now known to break down plastics."Many, many moons ago, fungi evolved to break down trees, especially this hard-to-break-down compound in trees called lignin. ... Its carbon backbone is very similar to the carbon backbone of plastics because essentially they're made out of the same thing," Isokauppila said.Three sealed jars at Hiro Technologies' lab show the stages of decomposition of a treated diaper over time. By nine months, the product appears as black soil - "just digested plastic and essentially earth," Isokauppila said.The company says it needs to do more research to find out how the product will decompose in real-world conditions in different climates and hopes to have the data to make a "consumer-facing claim" by next year. It also plans to experiment with plastic-eating fungi on adult diapers, feminine care products and other items.For now, it is selling "diaper bundles" for $35 a week online. Co-founder Miki Agrawal, who was also behind period underwear company Thinx, said the MycoDigestible Diapers had been generating excitement from consumers and investors since launching about a month ago, declining to give details. Agrawal said the company had chosen to focus on diapers as the top household plastic waste item."There is a deleterious lasting effect that we haven't really thought about and considered," Agrawal said. "Because when you throw something away, no one's asking themselves, 'Where's away?'"
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Court orders preservation of dead man's semen as mother seeks it for lineage
The Bombay High Court has directed a Mumbai-based fertility centre to preserve the frozen semen of a 21-year-old cancer patient who died earlier this year, after his mother approached the court seeking to use it to continue the family's mother, a resident of Santacruz in Mumbai, told the court that her son had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma — a rare form of bone and soft tissue cancer. Before starting chemotherapy, his oncologist advised the family to freeze his semen as the aggressive treatment could affect his to the mother's petition, the family was confident the young man would recover, but were unaware that he had independently signed a consent form instructing the fertility centre to destroy his semen if he did not survive. The family, which now comprises only women following the deaths of the father and uncle, said the son was the sole male heir. The 21-year-old passed away on February 16 this year. Amid their bereavement, the family requested the fertility centre to transfer the preserved semen to a facility in Gujarat for further medical advice. However, the centre refused without a legal directive, citing the man's signed with no other option, the mother wrote to various government offices but received no response. She then filed a petition in the Bombay High plea came up before Justice Manish Pitale, who observed that the matter raises significant questions about how semen or gametes should be handled after the donor's death under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, and its rules. "This becomes particularly significant in the present case, for the reason that the deceased, being the son of the petitioner, was unmarried at the time of his death," Justice Pitale for the Union of India, Advocate Yashodeep Deshmukh referred to a pre-ART Act judgement of the Delhi High Court, where frozen semen was handed over to the parents of a person. However, he pointed out that unlike that case, the young man here had explicitly opted for disposal of his samples after his court also took note that in the Delhi High Court judgement, directions had been issued to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to consider framing appropriate laws or guidelines for posthumous sought time to verify whether any such guidelines now exist under the ART to ensure that the mother's plea does not become futile, the Bombay High Court ordered the fertility centre to preserve the frozen semen until the matter is decided.- EndsMust Watch
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Duncan Hines parent Conagra Brands says it will phase out artificial colors
HighlightsConagra Brands, the parent company of Duncan Hines and Slim Jim, announced it will discontinue the use of artificial colors in its frozen foods by the end of this year and across its entire portfolio by the end of 2027. The company will not offer products containing artificial colors to K-12 schools starting from the 2026-2027 school year, aligning with similar commitments made by Kraft Heinz and General Mills. The federal government has increased scrutiny on artificial colors, with a recent ban on the dye Red 3 and plans to eliminate synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, relying on voluntary efforts from the food industry. Conagra Brands , the parent company of Duncan Hines , Slim Jim and other brands, is the latest big food company to say it's discontinuing the use of artificial dyes. In a statement released Wednesday - the same day as a similar statement from Nestle - Chicago-based Conagra said it will remove artificial colors from its frozen foods by the end of this year. Conagra's frozen brands include Marie Callender's, Healthy Choice and Birds Eye. Conagra said it won't offer products containing artificial colors to K-12 schools by the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year, and it will work to discontinue artificial dyes across its entire portfolio by the end of 2027. Kraft Heinz and General Mills made similar pledges earlier this month. The federal government has stepped up its scrutiny of artificial colors in recent months. In January, days before President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. regulators banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation's food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk. In April, Trump's Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency would take steps to eliminate synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, largely by relying on voluntary efforts from the food industry . Many of Conagra's products already make a point of using natural dyes . On a jar of Vlasic kosher pickle spears, Conagra notes that they're colored with turmeric, not the synthetic Yellow 5. For the cheesy color in its frozen vegetable sides or its Orville Redenbacher popcorn, Conagra uses annatto, a plant extract. But some of Conagra's products still rely on synthetic colors. Duncan Hines' Comstock County Cherry pie filling uses Red 40, for example, while its Creamy Strawberries n' Cream Frosting uses both Red 40 and Yellow 5. Conagra's Swiss Miss Butterscotch pudding contains Yellow 6, Red 40 and Blue 1.
Hans India
4 hours ago
- Hans India
New AI tool to revolutionise personalised cancer treatment
New Delhi: An international team of scientists has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that could revolutionise cancer treatment by mapping cellular diversity within tumours. The innovation tackles tumour heterogeneity in oncology, where varied cell populations cause treatment resistance and recurrence, Xinhua news agency reported. The AAnet AI tool, developed by the Sydney-based Garvan Institute of Medical Research in collaboration with the Yale School of Medicine in the US, uses deep learning to study gene activity in single cancer cells. It finds five different cell types within tumours, each with its own behaviour and risk of spreading. This helps doctors understand cancer better than older methods, which treated all tumour cells the same, said the multinational research team. 'Heterogeneity is a problem because currently, we treat tumors as if they are made up of the same cell. This means we give one therapy that kills most cells in the tumor by targeting a particular mechanism. But not all cancer cells may share that mechanism,' said the study's co-senior author, Associate Professor Christine Chaffer from the Garvan Institute. As a result, some cancer cells survive, and the disease can return, Chaffer said. She added that AAnet provides a way to biologically characterise tumour diversity, enabling the design of combination therapies that target all cell groups at once. Associate Professor Smita Krishnaswamy of Yale University, a co-developer of the AI, indicated that this is the first method to distill cellular complexity into practical archetypes, potentially transforming precision oncology. The technology is ready for clinical use, with plans to combine AI analysis and traditional diagnostics to create treatments tailored to each tumour's cell type. Validated in breast cancer, it also shows promise for other cancers and autoimmune diseases, marking a shift toward personalised medicine, revealed the study published in the journal Cancer Discovery.
