Our Story

The HIRO Story

HIRO is on a mission to help solve the global plastic crisis, starting with the #1 household plastic waste item: diapers.

REDUCE. REGENERATE.

We believe the future of sustainability isn’t just about doing less harm, it’s about regeneration. We’re not here to slap a green label on an old system. We’re here to build a new one, where products work with nature, not against it.

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Our Founding Stories

HIRO’s STORY

The pee and poop expert

Mama Miki here. When I gave birth to my son Hiro Happy, I was over the moon. But with each diaper change, I felt an overwhelming wave of guilt, wondering where each diaper ended up. I learned that a typical diaper thrown into a landfill takes 400+ years to decompose, and an average baby goes through 6,000 diapers in before they reach childhood.

Balancing my eco-conscious values with the demands of new motherhood felt like a tug-of-war. I tried cloth diapers and they were messy and wasted water. I looked to the eco-diaper world only to find options that sacrificed the comfort of my baby. I knew there had to be a better way.

My son Hiro helped me discover that plastic-eating mushrooms exist and that we can harness these wonderful hundred-million-year-old beings to help break down diapers in a safe, natural way.

We brought together a powerhouse science and technical team of earth stewards with a big mission: to help solve the global plastic crisis for future generations.

Nature’s Story

The OG founder

In nature, waste doesn’t exist. Everything has a role in an intricate web of interdependence — what one organism discards, another transforms. HIRO embraces this principle, weaving care for the planet into the very fabric of daily life.

We have taken inspiration from nature’s own methods of breaking down organic material. Fungi have been evolving for hundreds of millions of years to break down complex carbon materials, and plastics are no different. It’s in our mushroom’s DNA to eat plastics.

Our philosophy is to do our best to leave the world better than we received it. Our friendly fungi are trained experts: they’re safe to use, eliminate waste, and replenish soil to be healthy and nutrient-rich.

The History of hiro

After 4+ years of R&D and proof that fungi can break down plastics, we’re still just getting started. This is real progress, not perfection, and we’re committed to sharing every step. No greenwashing. No shortcuts. Just radical transparency and the honest, messy work of transforming waste into something life-giving.

This is the HIRO’s Journey, where the entire eco-system wins. (Yes, it’s possible.)

It took fungi nearly 70 million years to evolve their enzymes to break down lignin (the hard part of the tree), finally balancing nature’s carbon cycle.

(Spoiler: the same enzymes help break down plastic today!)

It All Began Millions of Years Ago (no, seriously.)

The hard part of trees, called “Lignin” evolves, but fungi haven’t yet caught up. When dead trees fall down, there is nothing to break them down, so they pile up for millennia.

It took fungi millions of years to evolve their enzymes to break down lignin (the hard part of the tree), finally balancing nature’s carbon cycle. (Spoiler: the same enzymes help break down plastic today!)

Plastic is invented to replace ivory and save the elephants. The world cheers, until plastic becomes a whole new environmental problem.

Disposable diapers hit the market, delivering convenience but creating a planet-sized problem. One diaper = 400+ years to break down. Each baby goes through up to 6,000 diapers in their lifetime.