Whether you’ve attempted any spring cleaning this year or have just been binging episodes of The Home Edit on Netflix while pretending to prepare for a deep clean, you might be finding it difficult to ignore just how much stuff we all have. And while it can be cathartic to engage in an annual purge, most discarded goods are unfortunately likely to end up in a landfill. Sustainably made items aren’t exempt, either; we’re just as likely to outgrow a conscientiously produced product as we are one made by a fast fashion retailer, at least eventually, and our planet is suffering the consequences of this consumption.

In fact, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was so bleak it caused environmental scientists to stage protests around the world. Simply put, the status quo is causing irreversible damage to our environment, and it needs to be disrupted ASAP. Fortunately, cutting-edge innovators are on the case, focusing on a new consumption model known as “circularity” in which mushrooms are poised to play an important role.

Our society currently produces and consumes in a linear fashion; we extract materials from the Earth, make products from them, and then dispose of the products. According to the Ellen MacArthur foundation, “By contrast, a circular economy is driven by three principles, underpinned by design, where we eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials at their highest value, and regenerate nature.” In other words, in a circular economy, we stop waste from being produced in the first place. It’s a solution that addresses the environmental impact of consumption at a systems level, thereby shifting the responsibility for sustainability away from the consumer and back to the companies creating the goods we consume (and the governments under which they operate).

In a circular economy, consumer goods are not only produced but are also designed for sustainability, so that the end of their life cycles is considered. Ideally, this means that products and their components can be infinitely repurposed or returned to the Earth without harm and waste is eliminated. Circularity ultimately aims to create production models that enable human consumption to benefit the planet rather than destroy it. (If you’re the nerdy type, check out this video from the MacArthur Foundation for a fascinating breakdown on how this works.)

Though not an easy undertaking, many brands across various categories are getting creative in order to design such a loop for products and packaging, and mushrooms are at the forefront of some of these innovations. “All fungi can play a large role in the front end of circularity," says Paul Foulkes-Arellano, founder of Circuthon Consulting. This is because mycelium, the root-like structure of a fungus, has a low carbon footprint as it can be cultivated on waste from other industries, in large amounts and at a fast pace, without the use of fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides. And mycelium has a vast—and still growing—range of applications, which means there are a number of things it can replace in order to make products more circular, including plastic packaging and cow leather.

IKEA, for example, is one of many brands now sourcing mycelium-based, biodegradable packaging from MycoComposite technology startup Ecovative. “Mushroom® Packaging was our first commercialized product, and it’s now used by businesses around the world,” says the company’s founder Eben Bayer. “We all know polystyrene, or Styrofoam, is bad for the planet, but our products are environmentally friendly from start to finish—they even return nutrients to the soil when you break them up and add them to your garden at the end of their useful life.” Such innovative packaging is critical to saving our planet and is an even better option than paper packaging (which many brands have adopted as an eco-friendlier alternative to Styrofoam or plastic) because increased demand for paper still leads to increases in deforestation and therefore is not a truly sustainable solution.

Leather alternatives made from mycelia are also showing promise as potentially circular materials. Adidas, Hermès, Stella McCartney, and Lululemon, for example, are all currently working with mycelium leather as a replacement for traditional leather and plastic-based pleather. While most of the resultant products aren’t perfectly circular yet—synthetic additives necessary for both durability and design are still hiccups—they are more sustainable than existing options and seem to be slowly inching highly polluting industries, including fashion, away from extremely problematic linearity.

Cutting-edge material innovations aren’t the only path toward circularity. Many companies now have programs that allow items to be returned to them and reused or repurposed in the making of new products. Patagonia, Timberland, Lush, Madewell, Best Buy, Apple, IKEA, Nike, and M.A.C. have all instituted return or even buy-back programs that encourage customers to give used products back to their company of origin for reuse in new items. And while these programs don’t necessarily extend a product’s lifespan indefinitely so as to make it wholly circular, some of these companies and others are simultaneously working to design products with circularity in mind. This means each and every component is either reusable or biodegradable via a plan put in place at the beginning of the product’s life cycle—just like the biodegradable Girlfriend Collective sandals included in our 2021 gift guide.

Other loops are slowly developing throughout the economy, and while many of them are only half-loops at present, or imperfect loops, they’re an improvement on the old standard of linearity that is destroying the planet. Circularity attempts currently include product recycling programs, rental businesses, such as Rent the Runway and Cort, resale businesses, such as neighborhood thrift stores, refillable packaging, which has become increasingly popular in the beauty and cleaning supply spaces, and products made from sustainably grown and harvested materials that have the potential to biodegrade, like mycelium.

Whatever shape they take, these initiatives are of the utmost importance in the fight against the ongoing climate crisis. As we take the necessary steps of moving from a linear economy to a circular one, mushrooms are playing a significant role in the transition and helping to ensure there are future springs in which our children can watch Netflix and clean.