Baby poop and fungi; why Austin company says they could be the solution to plastic crisis

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A dirty diaper could be the secret ingredient to helping answer an environmental question: how do we clean up all of our plastic waste?

"It's estimated that 7 billion tons of plastic have already been created, and over 400 million tons get added every year. So it's just a global mega problem," said Tero Isokauppila with Hiro Technologies.

The Finnish farmer partnered with Miki Agrawal to help solve this problem. They say the solution can be found in baby poop. "There's billions of pounds of baby poop that's basically harnessed by mother's breast milk," Agrawal said.

Agrawal has built a career out of stuff most people don't like talking about. She founded the bidet company Tushy and the women's underwear line Thinx. Now, she and Isokauppila have a new start-up: Hiro Technologies.

Named for Agrawal's son, the company is looking to fungi, grown in a dirty diaper, to eat plastic in landfills.

The plastic problem and diapers

According to Healthline, a baby typically uses around 3,000 diapers a year. The World Economic Forum estimates that 300,000 disposable diapers are sent to landfills every minute.

All those diapers contain plastic in various forms. A report filed by the McArthur Foundation estimated that the diaper industry burns through 248 million barrels of crude oil a year.

"When you give birth, it's the most intimate, beautiful, poignant experience, and then you're just going through so much waste, and there's this, like, sort of whiplash," Agrawal said.

Plastic is filling landfills at an alarming rate. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that over the past 65 years, plastic production has gone from two million metric tons a year to 450 million metric tons.

Plastic doesn't dissolve quickly or efficiently. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that a single plastic straw takes 200 years to decompose.

"Plastics are increasing exponentially, and we have no end of life solution to them. We're just punting that into the next generations," Isokauppila said.

Crappy solution

It all comes down to fungi. Think mushrooms or mold; fungi have been on our planet for billions of years and have evolved to eat anything to survive.

Scientists are turning to fungi to solve the plastic issue. In 2024, scientists in Germany found a plastic-eating fungi species. Isokauppila said his team found several other species as well.

These fungi consume plastic by eating lignin, a substance found in trees. Lignin is used in many types of plastic.

Growing this fungi requires fertilizer. Enter baby poop. The Hiro Industries team are developing a diaper, which once used, can serve as the breeding ground for this fungi.

A small pouch comes with the diaper, which can be tossed into the dirty diaper during changing. This pouch feeds off of the poop and then grows, consuming the diaper and any surrounding plastics. Since diapers end up in landfills, they could help clean up the plastic in these landfills.

The team tested multiple types of diapers to see if pee or poop or a combo of both would make growth challenging. They found that the chemicals in pee didn't interfere with the fungi growth, but actually help provide a moist environment.

Launching a brand

This week, Hiro Industries launched their Kickstarter in hopes of funding the project. As part of the campaign, they're offering an at-home science kit that shows how fungi consumes plastic.

"It's safe, easy, and you can see with your own naked eyes of how plastic gets broken down," Isokauppila said.

While the idea of using diapers to solve a crisis might turn many off, Agrawal said that it is actually an opportunity.

"When things are weird or awkward for culture, there is the opportunity to change culture, to bring culture forward, to get them to learn about something new," she said.

The diapers are scheduled to launch in February 2025.