Some entrepreneurs build businesses from scratch, others build them from trash, believing that garbage—once destined to rot in a landfill—can be repurposed into profitable products.
Dan Blake, a former Brigham Young University student who is now CEO and co-founder of EcoScraps, is just one of the American startups that are reusing and recycling waste. The idea came to him when he couldn’t finish his French toast at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Blake, 22 at the time, was eating at all-you-can-eat breakfast with his brother. The two ate as much French toast as they could, and threw out the rest. They were surprised at the amount of food that was thrown away and talked on the ride home about ways they could utilize this waste and make a business out of it.
Today, his million-dollar company has a deal with Costco to transform their leftover fruits and veggies into a rich 100% organic soil through a special process similar to composting. He developed the formula that nearly doubles the nutrients of chemical based soils. EcoScraps now runs two manufacturing plants in Salt Lake City and Tempe, AZ with 20 employees.
Clean the World and RecycleMatch are two more startups easing the pressure on our landfills and cutting pollution nationwide.
(READ the full report from Reuters, and WATCH an EcoScraps profile below)