Hi team, Ever wonder who’s building sustainable solutions for human waste? Urine luck. That’s today’s topic. Nor is this all about pee. We’re gonna get the scoop on poop, too, and get perspective on why we should keep both separate.
And fear not – those were most of the potty puns I needed to get out of the way. In today’s note: - A poop and pee problem
- Doing our business differently with Wasted*
- Unwinding our out-of-sight, out-of-mind culture
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Ask a farmer, and they’ll tell you organic wastes – poop and pee – are valuable. Both can work well for various fertilizing applications, especially when applied with care and under specific conditions. Humans have a rich, long history of using waste from animals in farming.
In nature, most animals pee and poop separately. Problems arise, however, when poop and pee mix. On farms, animal waste is often applied less discriminately in pursuit of higher and higher crop yields, leading waste streams to mix. This can create volatilized ammonia. Ammonia is a nitrogenous compound that pollutes waterways and damages habitats when it runs off farms. Under certain conditions, it can also turn into methane and nitrous oxide – both potent greenhouse gasses – that float into the atmosphere.
Major fault lines are forming globally concerning these agricultural practices, including in countries that are global ag export leaders, like the Netherlands. And all that is to say nothing about how we handle human waste. Doing business differently
Unlike most animals, most of us do our business all in the same place. We created the bathroom and centralized all waste management from the toilet bowl to the treatment plant. Our poop and pee almost always, inevitably, mix together. This renders them useless for most waste-to-value type applications, even though human poop and pee can also be effective fertilizers when separated.
Enter Wasted*. On the heels of a successful $7.5M seed round and a public launch, they’re telling the world about their mission: Splitting up human poop and pee. I caught up with CEO Brophy Tyree last week to get the download on their round – co-led by Collab Fund and Divergent Capital and with participation from Day One Ventures – and the business.
There are many challenges inherent to overhauling our society’s centuries-old waste management processes. One is how centralized waste treatment facilities are. In San Francisco, one facility processes 80% of the city’s wastewater. Processing waste together is also a major contributor to methane emissions.
Rather than start in the belly of the beast in sewers and treatment plants, which would entail billion-dollar infrastructure projects, Wasted* had to find another application to scale.
Porta-potties are a great fit. They’re smaller, mobile, and pretty modular. After waste accrues in them, it’s picked up and transported all above ground, meaning there's an existing supply chain and less infrastructure retrofitting required. |
Like many industries that could use a climate-conscious overhaul, the porta-potty industry hasn't changed much in 60+ years. Wasted* is giving porta-potties an update. For one, they want to make the porta-potty experience a bit more, uh, palatable. And they add separate receptacles for pee vs. poop: Everything that goes down the urinal goes into its own holding tank. At this point, the ladies in the audience may wonder whether they're expected to use some new urinal to help out here. Fair question. On construction sites, 95% of the population is male. That makes separation a bit easier, provided all the lads assiduously use the urinal. And construction companies increasingly have sustainability mandates, making them a relevant segment for Wasted*.
Further, Wasted*'s porta-potties also include better ventilation systems, bamboo toilet paper, and more sustainable products (i.e., using a sugar beet compound rather than methanol to keep waste from freezing).
Making it circular
Perhaps the most critical phase of the process after initial separation comes when Wasted* picks up the waste from the site. Their porta-potties are serviced with a double-tank vacuum system that can keep solids and liquids separate. The waste streams are then transported to a hub (Wasted*'s first hub is in Williston, VT) for processing. |
Processing will have to be site-specific; for eventual use in Vermont, Wasted* works to remove phosphorus for local soils that already feature too much phosphorus. Different markets will have different processing needs (putting on my business hat, that strikes me as a nuance of the business that could prove particularly challenging over time.)
The final step is where things get truly circular. Wasted* works with local farmers to apply the separated urine for different fertilizing applications, displacing some of the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Since the poop still features some pee in it (at least at this stage), it's not necessarily ready for resale into farm applications—one step at a time.
Beyond reusing waste, what are the other benefits of this process?
For one, depending on how they're applied, synthetic fertilizers can be quite taxing on the environment in their own right. Further, production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers accounts for more than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Displacing some of that production with alternate fertilizers that otherwise go to waste is an excellent opportunity.
Finally, production of fertilizer is also tied up in geopolitical conflicts. Reducing some of those dependencies could be another byproduct of Wasted*'s work. What's next for Wasted*
Everyone poops and pees. All the time. So there are plenty of other applications where separating waste and applying it back to the land makes sense. There are even plenty of other decentralized systems, like airplanes or trains.
That said, other applications will require new tech. Eventually, Wasted* will need to make new toilet designs that separate urine in the toilet bowl to really scale. Similarly, other sustainability challenges, like electrifying service trucks, loom.
For now, Wasted* is looking to prove out its unit economics and grow sales at the level of porta-potties. Intermediary steps before taking on all of wastewater treatment include building out decentralized sanitation infrastructure anywhere it's needed. You can imagine successful applications in disaster relief, developing countries, and more. The net-net
Centralized wastewater treatment is an excellent example of something that's intentionally out of sight, out of mind. Because of that, however, we've lose sight of the scale of our own waste and its impact on natural systems. As Brophy noted on our call, try as we might, at the end of the day, we aren't separate from natural systems; we're one with them. But we don't treat our waste that way. Wasted* sees a more harmonious future where we valorize more organic waste, not just from animals on farms, but from ourselves too. The headline goal is to create circular waste solutions wherever possible.
Nor are more circular solutions like theirs just good for the planet; they may make good business sense, too. Waste-to-value models are a focal area for me in 2023. For now, there's a lot to prove and no shortage of waste to put to work. |
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For this week’s podcast, I chatted with Joe Hargreaves, the CEO of Thallo. Thallo is one several new firms at the intersection of blockchains and carbon markets (as if blockchain and carbon markets weren’t sufficiently controversial topics on their own!)
Joe and I discuss Thallo’s approach to bridging legacy carbon credits on-chain and why he and the team think that’s important to scale carbon markets.
Considering all the hubbub surrounding carbon credits last week, this episode is also a good one if you want to hear perspectives on carbon markets' role in mitigating climate change and directing capital to developing nations. Tune in → here. |
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🎥 Let’s make a movie: Like indie filmmaking? Supporting other creative endeavors? My good friend Jeff Alper is running a kickstarter for a movie script he’s written and wants to bring to life. I really want to see this get made. Any support you can offer makes a huge difference. See you at the premier!
🧠 More headlines: Taking good care of our interior worlds is important work if we hope to do good in the external world. This week, I’m excited about the launch of Headlines, a new newsletter that will track innovation, business, and new trends in mental health. Check it out!
🎨 Climate tech meets art: Carbon drawdown-focused non-profit, DrawDAO, is open-sourcing and crowdfunding carbon removal research projects with awesome art from artists around the globe. Check it out & consider funding carbon removal research here.
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Here are jobs that I'm curating for the climate tech industry. Use this link to submit a role.
Plant Care Associate, Living Carbon (San Francisco)
Want to work with superplants? Got a background in horticulture or a related discipline and an understanding of plant science and biology? Living Carbon wants to engineer plants and trees that suck up more CO2 and is looking for a Plant Care Associate to nurture and care for their plants, manage greenhouse operations, and help with research and development. More here.
Marketing Associate, BlocPower (New York)
BlocPower is on a mission to electrify buildings. And they’re enjoying success and an expanding U.S. footprint. As the business grows, they’re hiring a Marketing Associate to position products and the brand for various stakeholders, ranging from customers to partners to policymakers. 2-5 years of experience and track record in digital/growth marketing preferred. More here.
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Enjoy the rest of the week! — Nick |
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