Can We End Food Waste? | Dylan Lew (Ecotone Renewables)

Dylan Lew is the CEO of Ecotone Renewables, a startup dedicated to making sustainable food and agriculture systems more accessible.

Ecotone Renewables has developed the “Seahorse”, which reinvents the food and plant waste disposal system, taking food that would otherwise be wasted and turning it into renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer. The Seahorse uses a process of anaerobic digestion to produce ‘Soil Sauce’ and transform methane gas emissions into less harmful CO2.

Ecotone won 2nd place at the Allegheny Cleantech Competition in 2018 and at the 2020 ACerS Humanitarian Pitch Competition. They are currently running a crowdfunding campaign to catalyze their next phase of growth.

In this episode, Dylan and Aaron discuss composting, emissions, waste management, and how many modern sustainability issues are matters of coordination, not requiring technical breakthroughs.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
01:00 What Is Food Loop?
02:30 US Soil is Dead and Gone?
03:10 Anaerobic Digestion
04:40 How Does Anaerobic Digestion Work?
05:50 Why is Anaerobic Digestion Important
07:00 Carbon Capture
07:50 Combustion Process
08:40 Origin of The Campaign
10:40 How The Campaign Turns Into A Business
11:30 First Portable Farm In Pittsburgh
12:30 Introducing the Seahorse System
13:20 Organic Fertilizer called Soil Sauce
14:30 Business Model of Seahorse System
16:30 Seahorse System vs Landfills
17:30 Best Harvest of Fresh Produce
18:00 Fertilizer Market
19:50 Soil Sauce Diverts Carbon Emission
22:00 Goal of Ecotone Renewables
23:00 Probe of Ecotone Renewables
25:00 Nutrient Levels on Food Waste
28:00 Plans on Distributing Seahorse System
31:00 How to be Involved with this Campaign