Washington, D.C.—Tarkett, through a partnership with Mycocycle, is working to help decompose and recycle construction waste via mycelium.
Tarkett was first introduced to Mycocycle at a recycling conference in 2023, where Joanne Rodriguez presented her discovery that mycelium can “eat” construction waste—including gypsum, rubber and asphalt—in a matter of weeks. The two companies connected afterward and tested the mycelium with old carpet. The results were remarkable: the mycelium decomposed the carpet and transformed it into a clean and usable, biobased material.
“Fungi have been recycling nature for a long time,” Rodriguez explained. “They are the best and only known remediators of heavy hydrocarbons known to be Class 1 carcinogens. The mycelium not only thrive on construction waste, but they become a fruiting body, indicating a very happy environment for the fungi.”
Shortly after this trial, Tarkett sought to field test the mycelium waste handling process in a real construction project to learn what an integration with Tarkett’s ReStart take-back and recycling program could look like and to determine if the result could be replicated on a larger scale.
Proof of concept: A new model for renovations
Tarkett united Mycocycle with Gensler, a global design firm focused on sustainability, as they were in the process of renovating their office here.
“Our Gensler Washington, D.C. renovation project had a waste diversion target of 90%,” said Benjamin Holsinger, global design resilience leader of Gensler’s product development practice. “We’d been working with our general contractor, DPR, to understand where all the potential waste was going, what we could reuse and what could be donated. When you’re looking at a net zero waste project, every pound of material matters.”
With project management support from DPR, Gensler’s old broadloom carpet was sent to Tarkett’s ReStart program for processing and then to Mycocycle where the firm’s mycelium-based treatment broke down the waste materials. In the end, Gensler and DPR met their 90% target and no flooring went to waste.
The Gensler renovation experiment served as a catalyst for the companies’ new partnership, expanding Tarkett’s recycling and remediation capabilities while simultaneously scaling Mycocycle’s innovative approach.