Packet of Fungi Inside New Diapers Breaks Them Down in Landfill Turning it to Mycelium

[Ghoti Ichthus]

Packet of Fungi Inside New Diapers Breaks Them Down in Landfill Turning it to Mycelium​

By Andy Corbley
May 14, 2025

"Recent discoveries in microbial digestion of plastic have finally left the lab and entered the real world in the form of HIRO diapers, the world’s first diaper manufactured to be eaten by fungi.
Every year, over 18 billion diapers are discarded into US landfills—and if they aren’t manufactured with natural cellulose, then they’re going to be there for 500 years, leaking microplastics and chemicals into the soil.
With that unfortunate truth out of the way, dig this dirty great news: a pair of serial entrepreneurs have developed diapers designed to be broken down into soil by fungi, and they’re practically flying off the shelves.
Each HIRO MycoDigestible Diaper comes with a small packet of shelf-stable, plastic-eating fungi. Parents simply throw the packet away with the used diaper—no extra steps required.
Once the diaper reaches a landfill, the fungi activate in the presence of moisture and begin to break down the diaper’s materials from the inside out. These fungi secrete enzymes that target and sever the carbon bonds in plastic, transforming the waste into mycelium and nutrient-rich soil over time."

More

Packet of Fungi Inside New Diapers Breaks Them Down in Landfill Turning it to Mycelium

While plastic-eating fungi were first discovered by scientists over a decade ago, their potential has remained locked in labs—until now

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

 

[Baby Yoda]

amazing!

 

[Tall Timbers]

I guess the billion or so diapers I changed when my kids were starting out will all be in the landfill for a little while longer.

 

[mattfivefour]

I guess the billion or so diapers I changed when my kids were starting out will all be in the landfill for a little while longer.

Yours weren't cloth???

 

[Tall Timbers]

Yours weren't cloth???

Mine were. With my kids we started out with cloth but my wife couldn't properly pin them on and neither could I so we surrendered and used disposables.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

They have self-cleaning ovens, so why aren't there self-cleaning diapers?

 

[Andy C]

Mine were. With my kids we started out with cloth but my wife couldn't properly pin them on and neither could I so we surrendered and used disposables.

The thought of using cloth diapers turns my stomach. Im one who does not get grossed out very easily, as I could tell a story about a clogged toilet plumbing in our RV, and what steps I had to take to unclog it. Gagged a few times, but never lost it.

 

[Andy C]

The cost for now to use this new product is approx 140 a month. I remember back in the day, when it was barely affordable for us to buy diapers, any extra cost would have not been doable.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

I'm the oldest in my family, so I remember the diaper pail with the soap and bleach and the pre-agitation/wash of those with #2 in the toilet

 

[Andy C]

I'm the oldest in my family, so I remember the diaper pail with the soap and bleach and the pre-agitation/wash of those with #2 in the toilet

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

The cost for now to use this new product is approx 140 a month. I remember back in the day, when it was barely affordable for us to buy diapers, any extra cost would have not been doable.

I suspect (and hope) cost will come down as more manufacturers offer something similar.

Regular disposables aren't cheap, either. It's almost cost-effective to use a diaper service in places where there's competing diaper services and garbage rates are higher for larger residential carts.

 

[Cheeky200386]

I bought cloth diapers to use with my first. The first day of sleep deprivation and I went and got disposable. There was no way I was doing extra laundry and taking time to clean off poop. Too exhausted. I never ended up using cloth diapers.

Peter is potty trained during the day and Elizabeth will be 3 next year when we hope to start training her.

I’m looking forward to being done with diapers in the next year or two.

 

[LydiaJoy]

I’ve been hearing about infant potty training called Elimination Communication, It just makes me wonder if the whole learning process is being dragged out by years in order to increase profits for the disposal diaper companies.

Elimination communication: How infant potty training works

Find out how elimination communication (infant potty training) works, and why you might want to give it a try.

www.babycenter.com

Can you start potty training when your baby's a newborn? Fans of elimination communication (EC) say yes – and that by getting a head start, your child can be potty trained by 18 months old.

Elimination communication (EC), also known as infant potty training, is the practice of introducing your baby to the toilet or potty at a very early age – usually between birth and 4 months old.

 

[mattfivefour]

Interesting.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

I've seen books that purport potty training in one day. Would be nice if this actually worked. I don't have kids, so
Pull-ups are a great invention

 

[Baby Yoda]

So glad I got Tim when he was 8.

 

[Kem]

LOLOLOL and you a Marine! What would you do at having to stop massive bleeding out in the field? One gets used to things pretty quickly when you have to. On the ambulance I got to the point where I could hold a basin with one hand for patient vomit while holding my coffee in the other....well out of the way of course. Not that I usually had coffee in the back of the ambulance but when the calls didn't stop all day well........

Can you start potty training when your baby's a newborn? Fans of elimination communication (EC) say yes – and that by getting a head start, your child can be potty trained by 18 months old.

I had both boys potty trained by 2 years but didn't start till they were almost 18 months old. Guess God just blessed me with cooperative children. I certainly never yelled or spanked about anything to do with potty training.

 

[Everlasting Life]

I’ve been hearing about infant potty training called Elimination Communication, It just makes me wonder if the whole learning process is being dragged out by years in order to increase profits for the disposal diaper companies.

Elimination communication: How infant potty training works

Find out how elimination communication (infant potty training) works, and why you might want to give it a try.

www.babycenter.com

Can you start potty training when your baby's a newborn? Fans of elimination communication (EC) say yes – and that by getting a head start, your child can be potty trained by 18 months old.

Elimination communication (EC), also known as infant potty training, is the practice of introducing your baby to the toilet or potty at a very early age – usually between birth and 4 months old.

This makes sense. Baby's are more alert and receptive than realized. We were able to teach ours sign language at an early age for communication. If they can grasp this they possibly could with potty training.

Careful patience, encouragement and observation for capability would be needed as certain stressors for little ones can inhibit the process of training.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

This makes sense. Baby's are more alert and receptive than realized. We were able to teach ours sign language at an early age for communication. If they can grasp this they possibly could with potty training.

Careful patience, encouragement and observation for capability would be needed as certain stressors for little ones can inhibit the process of training.

Even very young children can come to saving faith . . . I was 3
It's actually simpler and easier, as everything is black and white/yes-no/binary thinking, so The Bible and The Gospel is just the way it is, and anything that conflicts is wrong/no. Further, since too young and sheltered to be corrupted/influenced by non-Biblical ideas from non-family, no conflicting "truths" to create doubt or confusion.

I wonder how Jesus let Mary and Joseph know He needed to "go."

 

[mattfivefour]

I wonder how Jesus let Mary and Joseph know He needed to "go."

Probably didn't need to. He would have likely worn a form of diaper. In an article entitled History of the Diaper we find:

"Babies were Swaddled, which were strips of linen or wool wrapped around baby’s legs and body.

"In warm countries, babies were left mostly naked from the waist down, and mom would practice Elimination communication (mom would learn when baby needed to “go” and would hold them away from their body.)"