Companies leverage the power of mushrooms, saying ‘the future is fungi’
It’s estimated that construction and demolition account for one-third of the world’s overall waste. As growing landfills continue to elevate carbon emissions and pollute our air, soil and water, it’s imperative that leaders in the built environment innovate sustainable solutions for managing construction waste.
Announced today, Tarkett has formed a partnership with Mycocycle—a Chicago-based, nature-inspired biotech startup that leverages the root structure of mushrooms to break down construction waste. Through Mycocycle’s research and development, mycelia (fungal root structures) have been shown to consume and eliminate toxins from construction waste, producing a natural byproduct that makes an ideal raw material for the built environment and reduces our reliance on virgin raw materials.
“This partnership is rooted in a shared investment in the exponential power of collaboration and innovation,” said Eric Daliere, CEO of Tarkett North America. “Together, we share a commitment to creating a circular economy that protects our natural resources, promotes climate health and sustains every living thing.”
Through this exclusive partnership, Tarkett will work collaboratively with Mycocycle by investing in ongoing research and development. By joining forces, the companies will leverage Tarkett’s well-established ReStart take-back and recycling program as they operationalize alternative waste handling processes that return old flooring to a circular ecosystem. The partners will further test the effects of mycelium on all types of flooring collected through ReStart and explore the resulting byproduct as a central ingredient in new flooring products.
“Because of its legacy and reputation for transparency, its respect for the importance of third-party verification, and its willingness to invest in innovation, it was clear to me that Tarkett walks the talk. That was important to me,” Mycocyle Founder Joanne Rodriguez said. “My passion for this work—to remediate waste using Mother Nature’s tools—met its match in Tarkett and its people. They are all serious about sustainability and saving our planet.”
Last year in North America alone, Tarkett successfully diverted an estimated 1.5 million pounds (690 t) of post-use flooring to recycling, both in house and with external recycling partners. Through its partnership with Mycocycle and other innovative strategies, the company is on track to at least double that number in 2024.
A Partnership for Our Shared Future
The partnership between Tarkett and Mycocycle provides a new path to a circular economy by reducing waste, preserving virgin resources, and transforming old flooring into new biobased material.
“From this moment forward, we’ll never aim for anything less than zero waste,” said Roxane Spears, vice president of sustainability for Tarkett North America. “Collaborating with like-minded people working toward the same goal is the only way our world is going to solve global sustainability issues. This revolutionary partnership could change the game for commercial flooring waste handling for the entire industry, not to mention the planet. This is the future. The future is fungi.”
To follow along with Tarkett’s progress, visit commercial.tarkett.com/restart/innovation.
Partnership Proof of Concept with Gensler Renovation Project
A Legacy of Innovation, Partnership and Good Risk
Tarkett has a long history of collaborating with leaders inside and outside the flooring industry to brainstorm, research and develop healthier, more sustainable products that consider every step in their lifecycle.
Tarkett was first introduced to Mycocycle at a recycling conference in 2023, where Joanne Rodriguez presented her discovery that mycelium can “eat” construction waste—including gypsum, rubber and asphalt—in a matter of weeks. The two companies connected afterward and tested the mycelium with old carpet, and the results were remarkable: the mycelium decomposed the carpet and transformed it into a clean and usable, biobased material.
“Fungi have been recycling nature for a long time. They are the best and only known remediators of heavy hydrocarbons known to be Class 1 carcinogens,” Rodriguez explained. “The mycelium not only thrive on construction waste, but they become a fruiting body, indicating a very happy environment for the fungi.”
Shortly after this successful trial, Tarkett sought to field test the mycelium waste handling process in a real construction project to learn what an integration with Tarkett’s ReStart take-back and recycling program could look like, and to determine if the miraculous result could be replicated on a larger scale.
Proof of Concept: A New Model for Renovations
Tarkett united Mycocycle with Gensler, a global design firm and leader in sustainability, as they were in the process of renovating their Washington, D.C. office.
“Our Gensler Washington, D.C. renovation project had a waste diversion target of 90 percent. We’d been working with our general contractor, DPR, to understand where all the potential waste was going, what we could reuse, and what could be donated,” said Benjamin Holsinger, global design resilience leader of Gensler’s product development practice. “When you’re looking at a net zero waste project, every pound of material matters.”
With project management support from DPR, Gensler’s old broadloom carpet was sent to Tarkett’s ReStart program for processing and then to Mycocycle where the firm’s mycelium-based treatment broke down the waste materials. In the end, Gensler and DPR met their 90 percent target, and no flooring went to waste.
The Gensler renovation experiment served as a catalyst for the companies’ new partnership, expanding Tarkett’s recycling and remediation capabilities while scaling Mycocycle’s innovative approach.
About Tarkett
With a 140-year history, Tarkett is a worldwide leader in innovative and durable flooring and sports surface solutions, generating net sales of 3.4 billion euros in 2023. The Group has around 12,000 employees, 23 R&D centres, 8 recycling centres and 34 production sites. Tarkett designs and manufactures solutions for hospitals, schools, housing, hotels, offices, shops and sports fields, serving customers in more than 100 countries. To build “The Way to Better Floors”, the Group is committed to the circular economy and sustainable development, in line with its Tarkett Human-Conscious Design® approach. Tarkett is listed on the Euronext regulated market (compartment B, ISIN: FR0004188670, ticker: TKTT). www.tarkett-group.com
Every Step Matters
For years, Tarkett has raised the sustainability standards of the flooring industry. The company designs floors with transparency you can trust as it creates healthy impacts on indoor spaces and protects our air, water, soil, and every living thing. Tarkett’s ReStart® take-back and recycling program will either repurpose or recycle every type of flooring from any manufacturer. Its near-term science-based carbon emissions reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are fully aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement objective to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius. For more information, visit commercial.tarkett.com/sustainability.
About Mycocycle
Mycocycle, Inc. is a nature-inspired and woman-owned biotechnology startup that leverages fungi to transform industrial waste into reusable materials. Founded in 2018, the company is on a mission to drive circularity in the construction supply chain and divert waste from landfills with its innovative solution. Mycocycle blends lab-cultivated fungi with debris at the point of waste generation to detoxify hard-to-recycle building materials and turn them into new raw materials. Its customers include companies across the waste management, recycling, and manufacturing industries, as well as companies focused on reducing Scope 3 emissions.