Here to reimagine human “waste”

In 2019, the founders came together around a mission to catalyze the global transition to circular sanitation and change the way people think about waste.

The sanitation industry needed a revolution.

The Wasted* founders came together through a series of mountaineering expeditions in the backcountry of the Arctic, Patagonia, Nepal, and in their backyard of Lake Tahoe. On these adventures, we were exposed to the human waste crisis happening in our pristine natural ecosystems — where untreated waste was leaking from pits into the surrounding environment.

We decided to start one.

Inspired to leave these awe-inspiring places better than we found them, we hatched a plan to tackle the can. A two-year search for sustainable sanitation ensued. Surveying, installing, servicing, disassembling, and reassembling toilets, we strove to understand the problem and recognize a viable solution.

In search of a solution, we understood scale was required, and quickly. The problem is far greater than we had ever imagined: in our portable sanitation infrastructure, 32 billion gallons of water is being wasted, and over 6 billion gallons of human waste is being unsustainably treated.

We also learned that our waste carries the nutrients needed to grow food — nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium — and that if we can keep pee and poo separate, we can transform our waste into fertilizer.

Out of those core insights, Wasted* was born.

We exist to ensure nothing is wasted* We exist to ensure nothing is wasted* We exist to ensure nothing is wasted*

Our People

Taylor Zehren*

Co-Founder & CEO

*Drove from Oregon to Argentina

Thor Retzlaff*

Co-Founder & CMO

*Pooped on all seven continents

Brophy Tyree*

Co-Founder & Corp Dev

*I can speak to trees

Bill Miles*

Chief Financial Officer

*Plays soccer tournaments around the world

Betsy Nesbitt*

VP of Operations

*I love all things coffee

Shyam Shukla*

General Manager - Boston

*I’m vegan for the planet

Shane Kimber*

Nutrient Network Technician

*I rode a bull in Texas

Rachel Binstock*

Chief of staff

*Can tie bowline knot one-handed

Benson Colella*

Multi-Disciplinary Engineer

*I’ve cracked a safe

Ben Nussbaum*

Growth Marketing Manager

*My initials spell my name

Mark Costello*

OFFGRID - SALES & SOLUTIONS

*Thru hiked the Appalachian Trail

Harry Fromm*

operations manager

*Went overboard in Alaska

Matthew Scheeler*

Content & Media Specialist

*Probably out climbing a mountain

Peter Tuite*

Nutrient network technician

*Onward and Upward

Armando Machado Jr*

Customer success manager

*Birds, travel, sports, and food

Lukas Bo Nielsen*

Business development Intern

*From the land of legos

Trona*

Chief Pup Officer

*I am part polar bear

Remi*

Assistant pup manager

*I really like playing fetch

Our Values

Biophilia 🌳

We hold a sacred celebration of the natural world and recognize Earth as our primary stakeholder. With a profound sense of interconnection, we consider all life in everything we do.

Reverence 🙏🏽

We have deep respect for all those that make our work possible: service technicians and customers, those who came before us and those who work alongside us. We hold ourselves and each other in high regard, prioritizing honest and integrity driven collaboration. We recognize that each of our individual actions – and how we do them – matters.

Fun 😜

In our approach to life and work, we maintain a perspective of levity and positivity. We embrace the notion that fun is not merely an outcome, but a lens through which we view the world. We take responsibility for consciously infusing fun into our professional endeavors.