RT3 member Joanna Rodriguez, CEO of Mycocycle, featured for her efforts to eliminate waste in roofing.
With 14 million tons of asphalt shingles hitting landfills each year, Joanne Rodriguez knew that she needed to do something to end this cycle of waste. In a Q&A interview with Roofing & Exteriors, Joanne shared, “When you remove a roof, you have a lot of trash, not just any trash, but construction and demolition debris. Until now, the roofing industry and other asphalt and chemical manufacturers have not been able to achieve zero-waste because the products manufactured were ultimately contaminated with toxic constituents.”
Her company, Mycocycle, uses the science of mushrooms to remove toxins from the waste. The resulting bioproduct is something that can be used in the manufacture of new materials. Through Mycocycle’s process the company addresses the concerns of how to dispose of construction material and how to stay chemically compliant.
The company also makes a huge impact on the environment. “We help lower greenhouse gasses related to waste management activities by almost 3 metric tons of CO2 emissions for every 1 ton of waste diverted. This is how we are disrupting the roofing and construction industries,” explained Joanne during the Q&A.
About Mycocycle
Mycocycle, Inc. was founded in October 2018. It is a woman-owned, early stage cleantech company using mycoremediation to process toxins out of waste. Mycocycle was recognized as a Finalist in FastCompany’s “2020 World Changing Ideas” Awards issue, a presenter for NREL’s 2020 Industry Growth Forum, a 2020 Innovation selection in the EPA’s Innovation and America Recycle’s Fair, and the winner of the Cleantech Open National 2020 Resiliency Challenge. Mycocycle has been named a 2021 Illinois Qualified New Business Venture under the Angel Investment Tax Credit Program. This program provides Illinois-based investors a state tax credit of 25 percent of their investment up to $2 million. For more information visit www.mycocycle.com.