Want to save the world? Let’s start with reducing waste! Here are three of the best companies upcycling and reusing the valuable resources we have! This may even lead you to start your own social enterprise.
Meet Jared Criscuolo: UpCycling Waste to Create a Better Fertilizer
Site: https://www.upcycleandcompany.com/
Jared Criscuolo wants to turn your poop into fertilizer. In 2012, Jared got sick from polluted water while surfing. The water was contaminated with wastewater and runoff from the city. This is a common occurrence in the USA, and Jared set out to be part of the solution to our waste problems.
He started his own fertilizer company, epicycles waste products from other industries to add to the fertilizer, and has tapped into the brewing industry as well. The end product is a 100% safe, dry pellet that is easy to apply. Jared’s goal is to upcycle 3 million pounds of biosolids per year. Most fertilizers involve mining for nutrients, which decimates the land, and they’re shipped around the world, guzzling fossil fuels. Jared’s “future friendly fertilizer” is sourced, made, and sold locally.
To learn more about Jared Criscuolo, visit his Website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
Meet Tessa Cook and Saasha Celestial-One: Creators of the OLIO Food Waste App
Everyone is going to love leftovers now with the OLIO Food Waste App. Tessa and Saasha found a way to share leftover food so there’s less food waste!
Saasha Celestial-One, Co-Founder & COO
OLIO is a free app that connects neighbors with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.
Got leftovers, but no friends to share them with? There’s an app for that! With OLIO you can list your surplus food and someone can come pick it up from you.
About half of all food in the USA is never eaten. This app is out to shrink that number and feed bellies, not bins! Nearly 200,000 people have downloaded the app so far and shared food with their neighbors.
To learn more about the OLIO Food Waste App, visit their Website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Toast Ale: Craft Beer Made From Wasted Bread
Americans love their bread, but they waste millions of pounds of it each year. Most ends up in landfills where it emits methane: a potent green house gas. Americans also love their beer, so Toast Ale has come up with an innovative solution to make a craft beer from bread that would have otherwise gone to waste!
“We have over 200 soup kitchens in New York City but I don’t think that is enough to use all the bread that New York City Produces.” Madi and Devin of Toast Ale have long been stressed by the scale of wasted food. They just brewed a pilot batch in New York with 300 pounds of rescued bread, and are crowdfunding to bring full-scale production to the US by this summer.
They plan to rescue 10,000 pounds of bread in their first year and brew 150,000 pints of Toast Ale. 100% of the profits will be donated to charities working to end food waste. Toast Ale believes that saving the environment requires throwing a better party than the people destroying it.
To learn more about Toast Ale, visit their Website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram
Support their crowdfunding campaign to bring this beer to the USA: Indiegogo
