BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Mycocycle Inc. announced that it was selected to receive funding from REMADE Institute for the research project "Building a Sustainable Supply Chain of Materials for the U.S. Healthcare Sector." Partnering with Mycocycle on the project are The MITRE Corporation, Braskem, Covanta and Antea Group.
“Mycocycle’s role will be to employ our technology on plastic waste streams, as a low-energy, low-carbon process to create reuse options for materials long-term,” said Mycocycle CEO Joanne Rodriguez. “At the end of two years, Mitre will have measured the embodied energy, LCA, and costs associated with deploying different technologies to combat plastic waste within healthcare.”
The project will build collaborative expertise across the healthcare sector, materials sciences, and waste management to quantify areas of circularity in metalware and plastics and, therefore, reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain.
"The transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy will require an unprecedented reduction in the embodied energy and carbon emissions associated with foundational industrial materials in every critical sector — from healthcare, to agriculture, to transportation," said Kelly Speakes-Backman, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, U.S. DOE. "By investing in technologies that improve our ability to re-use, recycle and remanufacture these materials, DOE is moving America toward a circular economy and reducing carbon emissions across the manufacturing sector."
Because the waste streams Mycocycle will be treating contain the thermoplastic polymer-polypropylene, the company anticipates applying similar treatments to waste materials in other industries like clothing and textiles or roofing and building materials which frequently use similar polymers.
