Can Mushrooms Replace Plastic?
Mycelium - the root-like web of threads a fungus grows through a food source - can be grown into a leather-like sheet, a moulded packaging foam, or a fire-resistant insulation panel, all from the same process, in one to three weeks instead of the years plastic and leather take.
The video traces what that structure is actually made of (chitin and glucan fibres, the same family of material as a crab shell), how the growing process works, and then the commercial shakeout: Ecovative's packaging and insulation business, founded in 2007, which kept shipping quietly for over a decade; Bolt Threads' Mylo mycelium leather, backed from October 2020 by Adidas, Kering, Lululemon and Stella McCartney, paused in the summer of 2023 after it could not raise the financing to scale manufacturing; and MycoWorks, which chose a slower, luxury-first route with Hermes and a $45m Series B in 2020, closed a production facility in late 2025, and was bought out of a restructuring by DFX Corp in early 2026, reopening a smaller operation in Emeryville, California that June.
The video is clear about why the bets diverged: leather needed a thin, visually consistent, tannery-grade sheet at volume; packaging and insulation tolerated a rougher, cheaper mat. Mycelium did not replace plastic or leather at the mass-market scale the 2010s hype promised. It found narrower, higher-margin niches instead.
Every figure is on screen with its source and date.
In these topics
Chapters
- The pitch
- What mycelium actually is
- Why chitin behaves like a material
- Growing it: the weeks-not-years process
- Three product families
- The 2010s hype cycle
- Why Mylo stalled
- MycoWorks takes a different path
- The 2026 consolidation
- Packaging and insulation keep growing quietly
- Why leather failed where packaging didn't
- What's left of the mushroom-plastic bet
Sources and credits
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons)
- Fungal mycelium growing up a tree trunk, Chugach National Forest, Alaska (USDA Forest Service photo): Forest Service Alaska Region, USDA, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMycellium_Climbing-Chugach-LW-007_%2852502184271%29.jpg
- Armillaria mycelium felts under the bark of a live infected tree, Malheur National Forest, Oregon (site of the 'Humongous Fungus'): Craig L. Schmitt, Michael L. Tatum, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AArmillaria_mycelium_felts_under_the_bark_of_a_live_infected_tree_-_The_Malheur_National_Forest_Location_of_the_World%27s_Largest_Living_Organism_%28The_Humongous_Fungus%29_-_fsbdev3_033146_%28page_7_crop%29.jpg
- Fungal mycelium colony grown on an agar plate culture (CDC Public Health Image Library): unknown, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATrichophyton_mentagrophytes_PHIL_2929_lores.jpg
- Straw bales being handled for aerial dispersal, post-Hewlett Fire mitigation (USDA NRCS photo) - straw as the kind of agricultural waste used to seed mycelium: USDAgov, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APost_Hewlett_Fire_Mitigation_-_Straw_Airdrop_%2820120720-NRCS-LSC-0600%29.jpg
- A pile of sawdust from a day's mill work, American engineers in France, WWI (NARA) - sawdust as a mycelium growing substrate: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADrills_-_Engineer_Corps_-_Pioneer_Work_-_American_engineers_in_France._A_pile_of_sawdust%2C_the_result_of_one_day%27s_mill_work_-_NARA_-_31477380.jpg
Primary sources
- Core77, 'Design Entrepreneurs: Eben Bayer of Ecovative'; Tri-co Foundation Beakerhead spotlight on Ecovative Design - founded 2007 by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
- Bolt Threads press release, 2 Oct 2020, as reported by Textile World and BusinessWire - exclusive Mylo partnership with Adidas, Kering, Lululemon and Stella McCartney.
- Business of Fashion, 4 Jul 2023; fashionunited.uk, 4 Jul 2023, quoting CEO Dan Widmaier's remarks to Vogue Business - Mylo production paused after failing to raise scale-up financing.
- Novo Holdings press release, 'Novo Holdings participates in USD 45m Series B investment in MycoWorks,' 17 Nov 2020.
- Scientific American / Nature Biotechnology, 16 Mar 2022; Dezeen; Business of Fashion coverage of the Hermes Victoria bag - partial mycelium-and-calfskin construction.
- mycostories.com, 3 Feb 2026 (updated 5 Feb 2026) - MycoWorks' South Carolina facility closure, November 2025.
- Biofuels Digest, 'Fungi funds: DFX Corp. acquires mycelium leather maker MycoWorks,' 9 Feb 2026; World Biomarket Insights, 9 Feb 2026; Green Queen, 9 Feb 2026.
- PR.com press release, 'DFX Corporation Launches Phase II of Growth Strategy with Reopening of MycoWorks Innovation Center in Emeryville,' 26 Jun 2026 - Daniel Frydenlund quotes.
Not regulated financial advice.