Here, we have 3 examples of startup innovation at its finest — with stellar solutions from Ambrosia, Back to the Roots, Treasure8 and Shameless Pets promising to bite off a chunk of the US’ massive food waste issue.
Clean your house with water, organic compounds from food
Image credit: veles
A new household cleaning product launching this week represents a completely new
approach to addressing food waste: veles is the first
all-purpose household cleaner composed almost entirely of recovered water and
common organic compounds (acetic acid, lactic acid, and alcohol) scientifically
derived from food waste — effectively making it a resource-negative product.
Like many of her creative counterparts (some of which are featured below),
entrepreneur Amanda Weeks — CEO and co-founder of veles's parent company,
Ambrosia (fka Industrial/Organic) — saw food
waste as a high-value resource; and built a company that uses biological and
mechanical processes to recover water from food waste and create value from the
byproducts of this process.
Designing for Circularity-Friendly Behaviors
Join us as leaders from BBMG and REI examine how leading brands are innovating and scaling circular models to attract new fans and earn customer loyalty, all while eliminating waste — Thurs, May 9, at Brand-Led Culture Change.
Typical liquid cleaning products are typically over 90 percent water — so, if
every US household used a 16-ounce bottle of cleaning product every month, they
would use nearly 175 million gallons of water a year. Using products such as
veles, which are instead comprised of water and active cleaning ingredients from
food waste, would instead divert 2.5 million tons of food waste from landfills.
The company says the savings in greenhouse gas emissions from the otherwise
wasted food would be comparable to taking 1.5 million cars off the road for a
year. Oh, and the company also uses recyclable and biodegradable packaging and
shipping materials.
Attention, Walmart shoppers: Back to the Roots continues to take over the world
Image credit: Back to the Roots
This week, indoor gardening pioneers Back to the
Roots announced yet another giant retail
partnership that will bring the educational, indoor gardening experience to
homes across the US: Along with other nationwide retailers including
Target, The Home Depot and
Whole
Foods,
the Oakland, California-based startup’s grow-your-own, organic gardening kits
will now be available in over 2,300 Walmarts across the country — cementing
its position as the nation’s fastest-growing organic gardening company.
Launched a decade ago, the company’s first product — grow-your-own mushroom
kits
— used recycled coffee grounds as part of the substrate. The prolific startup
has since created a host of ready-to-grow produce kits for eaters of all ages,
as well as a line of organic, four-ingredients-or-less
cereals
all aimed at reconnecting people to food.
The company’s ongoing mission to “undo
food”
has been fueled by a diverse array of strategic partnerships in the past few
years, including with celebrity cook Ayesha
Curry,
rock band Fall Out
Boy,
the New York City public school
system;
and Nature’s
Path
– the world’s largest organic cereal company – which in 2018 brought Back to the
Roots cereals into every school cafeteria across the US.
“Building a new retail category and reshaping how consumers engage with certain
products is tough — it takes a lot of hard work, the right partners and the
right timing. But if a brand can pull it off, like Back to the Roots is doing
now, it has a chance to reshape mainstream culture quickly,” says John
Foraker, co-founder & CEO of Once Upon a Farm, and former CEO of
Annie's. “These new gardening sets in national retailers are going to
rapidly accelerate awareness and access to organic, fresh food for millions of
families across the country.”
Treasure8 now upcycling juice pressings into healthy pet treats
Image credit: Shameless Pets
Meanwhile, across the Bay in San Francisco,
Treasure8 — a tech startup working to fight food
waste and climate change through
upcycling
— recently announced a partnership with dog snack company Shameless
Pets, to help SP further its mission to reduce the
environmental impact of pet food with its nutritious, upcycled pet treats.
“The folks at Shameless Pets are innovative and creative people — a perfect
example of when passion meets purpose and we’re proud to call them partners in
this Resource Revolution,” said Treasure8 co-CEO Derk Hendriksen.
Read more about the new partnership
here
… and find Shameless Pets treats at Target stores across the country.
Published Feb 6, 2020 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET
Sustainable Brands Staff