A Startup Is Turning Porta-Potties Into Sources of Fertilizer

Vermont-based Wasted is focused on “container-based sanitation” — toilet systems that collect human waste and transport it to facilities for nutrient-recovery treatment.

A Wasted-branded portable toilet.

Photo courtesy of Wasted

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For all its crap, the United States isn’t doing much with it.

Wasted, a Burlington-Vermont based startup, is hoping to change that. The three-year-old company collects human waste from portable toilets and transports it to a processing center, where the excrement is treated through a nutrient-recovery process to create fertilizer. On Wednesday, Wasted announced $7.5 million in seed-stage funding from investors that include Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, Day One Ventures, Third Sphere, Pure Ventures and Gratitude Railroad.