Episode Details

Todd Wilson spent ten years trying to convince someone to fund a machine that smacks food out of its packaging. Banks passed. He built it anyway in Michigan, a state with one of the lowest landfill surcharges in the country and no organics mandate to lean on. In this conversation with Garr Punnett and Sabira Lakhani, Todd walks through the economics of pre-consumer food waste: where sealed, unsold product actually comes from, who takes it once it's separated, and why the machine was never the hard part. It's an unusually candid look at the capital, the partnerships, and the smell involved in standing between a grocer and a landfill.