Textile and food waste biodegradation for the production of composite mycelium materials using Pleurotus ostreatus

The fashion industry produces over 100 billion garments per year, of which 85% end up in landfill before the end of the year. Considering filamentous fungi are capable of biodegrading cellulose and complex molecules and of producing a wide range of biomaterials, an opportunity to rethink the linearity of the textile industry emerges. Biodegradation of various combinations of denim textile waste, synthetic textile waste, food waste and spent coffee grounds was investigated using Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium. The resulting composite material was tested for its use in material production. The outcomes of the study showed that Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium could successfully grow on all the combinations of food waste (vegetable peels and coffee grounds) with textile waste (synthetic textile and denim textile) and even on denim textile waste only. Provided the soft nature of the substrate, the textile and food waste mycelium composite is also malleable and therefore interesting for applications in the textile industry. A protocol for post-processing of the flexible composite material using low energy and natural components (heat, water, glycerol and wax) was created to transform the composite into a leather-like fungal material.