British scientists are increasingly looking beneath our feet for solutions to some of the planet's most pressing environmental crises, with fungi emerging as nature's unexpected engineers capable of tackling everything from plastic pollution to sustainable manufacturing.
The Composting Nappy Revolution
Among the most promising innovations is the Hiro diaper, which comes with an unusual addition: a sachet of freeze-dried fungi designed to be sprinkled over a baby's waste. This simple act kickstarts a catalytic process that could see the entire nappy – including its plastic components – broken down into compost within just twelve months.
The innovation was recently recognised by the Future is Fungi Awards, which honour groundbreaking applications using fungi to address urgent environmental challenges. Hiro's founder and CEO, Miki Agrawal, explained that their proprietary blend of fungi activates in response to moisture from babies' excretions, growing happily in oxygen-poor landfill conditions while secreting enzymes that rapidly digest plastics without leaving microplastics behind.
"So far, we've shown that we're able to do this in our lab in under six months, and now we're testing the diapers in simulated landfill conditions in natural environments," Agrawal confirmed.
Nature's Multifunctional Marvel
Professor Andrew Adamatzky from the University of the West of England in Bristol, who is investigating whether fungi could be incorporated into unconventional computing circuits, identifies several converging factors putting fungi in the spotlight.
"First, people are beginning to appreciate that fungi are neither plants nor animals, but their own vast and largely unexplored kingdom with extraordinary biological abilities," he said. "Second, practical demonstrations – fungal packaging, fungal leather, fungal insulation, even fungal electronics – have shown that these organisms can replace or augment many industrial materials."
At the heart of this potential lies mycelium – the thread-like network forming the bulk of a fungus. This remarkable substance can be grown into strong, lightweight materials using little more than agricultural waste, while some species secrete powerful enzymes capable of breaking down wood, petroleum-like compounds and various plastics.
This dual ability – building structures and digesting complex molecules – makes fungi unusually versatile. Mycelium can be transformed into building materials, biodegradable foams, environmental cleanup tools, or biological factories for chemical synthesis.
Beyond Plastic: The Wider Fungal Frontier
While plastic degradation captures headlines, fungi's applications extend much further. Two award winners – Michroma and Mycolever – are turning fungi into living chemical factories producing greener alternatives to petrochemical-derived additives, including natural food colourings and cosmetic emulsifiers.
Britta Winterberg, CEO and founder of Mycolever, which uses fungi to synthesise an emulsifier for personal care products, highlights the scale of opportunity: "Over the last few decades, we've figured out that there are an estimated 5.1 million species of fungi on this planet. Advances in technology have allowed scientists to sequence many of them, meaning we know much more about what they do – and we've realised they're capable of so much."
Ricky Cassini, CEO of Michroma, adds that "filamentous fungi are naturally strong producers of complex secondary metabolites, including many of the world's most vibrant pigments. Their innate ability to secrete metabolites simplifies downstream processing and makes them ideal for producing food colourants with the performance the industry requires."
Another emerging application leverages fungi's natural heat-resistant properties. Dr Yassir Turki's Jordan-based company, Metanovation, is developing a mycelium-based firefighting foam that, unlike synthetic foams leaching PFAS "forever chemicals" into soil, could be grown on waste materials and biodegrade naturally after use.
The Future: Fungal Electronics and Beyond
Perhaps the most futuristic frontier involves using fungi in sensing and electronics – an idea moving rapidly from science fiction to laboratory reality. Researchers have demonstrated that materials infused with living mycelium can behave like simple electronic components: pulsing like tiny oscillators, storing signals like capacitors, and filtering information like basic circuits.
Professor Adamatzky's group is among those experimenting with mycelial networks' electrical behaviour. "In the laboratory, we can record natural electrical spikes from mycelium and use them in bio-sensing, soft robotics, or unconventional computing," he revealed. "Few biological systems are so multifunctional."
While full-scale fungal electronics remain speculative, the potential for living sensors that grow, self-repair, continually adapt to their environment and biodegrade when no longer needed represents a paradigm shift in sustainable technology.
Susanne Gløersen, founding CEO of the Future is Fungi Awards, emphasises their mission: "This award exists to support the boldest visionaries turning fungal science into systemic change. Fungi are nature's original engineers. We're simply giving them the platform they deserve."
Nevertheless, Professor Adamatzky sounds a cautious note, warning against assuming fungi could replace every conventional technology. "When used in the right context, fungi are powerful allies," he said. "These 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."
As innovations like composting nappies demonstrate, some of our most powerful solutions to man-made problems may already be quietly growing beneath our feet, waiting to be discovered and harnessed for a more sustainable future.
