From edible to sustainable

• Pollution. Climate change. Slaughter practices. These are just some of the negative impacts that the leather industry contributes to. The global environmental movement led to a demand for leather alternatives, forecasted to grow to US$89.6B by 2025.
• Companies across the automotive, fashion, and furniture industries have steadily introduced leather alternatives for years. Companies like 500-backed MYCL is one of them.
• You may know of MYCL as a mushroom leather company, but did you know that they first started off selling edible mushrooms? “We thought, why don’t we put mushrooms in the box and we sell it to customers, so people can grow the mushrooms anywhere in their house, in their offices?” shared Co-founder & CEO Adi Reza Nugroho.
• Then, ideas for other applications came into the picture. The team did some research, and in 2016 discovered that mushrooms can also be used for alternative materials. “The first iteration back then was building materials. So, we designed building materials using the mycelium composite to replicate or mimic the concrete and steel structure,” he said.
• The mushroom mycelium has the ability to create a unique, strong material without having any plastic,” he added.
• In addition to environmental benefits, MYCL’s alternative leather has also brought about a surprising economic benefit to their clients. Adi shared that some countries have banned leather from Indonesia due to poor wastewater treatment. “Once [our brand partners] use our materials, they can now export overseas,” he said.
• Currently, MYCL has over 50 customers, with a total contracted value of up to US$2M. The team aims to harvest 250,000 sq ft of mushrooms next year, displacing leather production which would otherwise create 430 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the slaughter of 7,000 cows, and the conversion of 1.5M liters of fresh water into tanning effluent.
• Listen to the full Indo Tekno podcast episode.

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