What is Wasted's primary product?

Wasted develops modular, source-separating portable toilets and decentralized processing centers called 'wasted*hubs.' These hubs process human waste into NPK fertilizer, Class-A biosolids, and recovered water, creating a circular sanitation system that avoids traditional sewer infrastructure.

How large is the market Wasted is targeting?

The deck outlines three distinct market opportunities: a $17B global portable sanitation market, a $171B global fertilizer market, and a $280B global wastewater treatment market. They specifically highlight a $13.6B opportunity in recovering nutrients from urban waste.

Why did Wasted choose the construction industry as its beachhead?

According to slide 11, construction is the largest segment of the portable sanitation market at 59%. It offers a dense concentration of customers in urban environments and benefits from current sustainability and innovation tailwinds in the building sector.

What are the specific outputs of the Wasted processing hub?

As detailed on slide 9, the 'wasted*hub' produces four main outputs: NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) fertilizer, Class-A biosolids, 95% recovered water, and a reduction in nutrient pollution.

Who are the key members of the Wasted leadership team?

The team includes Co-Founders Thor Retzlaff (CMO), Taylor Zehren (COO), and Brophy Tyree (CEO), along with Abigail Cohen (CTO) and Bill Miles (Corporate Development), as shown on slide 15.

Wasted Pitch Deck: All 17 Slides + Teardown

See all 17 slides of the Wasted pitch deck — a 2024 Seed deck — with a slide-by-slide teardown of what the deck does well and where it falls short.

Wasted’s 17-slide deck is a masterclass in narrative-driven climate tech fundraising. By identifying a specific biological inefficiency—the mixing of liquid and solid human waste—the company positions itself as both a hardware innovator and a circular economy play. The deck successfully bridges the gap between a 'universally-hated' service (portable toilets) and a high-value commodity market (fertilizer). While the deck is light on specific unit economics and competitive landscape details, it leans heavily on the massive total addressable market across sanitation ($17B), fertilizer ($171B), a…

Key takeaways

The core problem is defined as the intentional mixing of human pee and poo, which creates energy-intensive sludge (Slide 3).
Wasted identifies a $13.6B annual value for nutrients currently trapped in urban wastewater streams (Slide 5).
The beachhead market is portable sanitation, chosen because it is fragmented, antiquated, and disconnected from sewers (Slide 7).
The 'wasted*hub' acts as a decentralized alternative to treatment plants, recovering 95% of water and producing NPK fertilizer (Slide 9).
Construction is the primary anchor segment, representing 59% of the market (Slide 11).
The deck targets three massive global markets: $17B in portable sanitation, $171B in fertilizer, and $280B in wastewater treatment (Slide 13).
The team consists of five core members, including three co-founders and a CTO (Slide 15).
The deck omits a specific financial 'Ask' slide and detailed unit economics for the processing hubs.

Introduction: The Circular Economy of Sanitation

Wasted entered the market with a bold proposition: human waste is not a liability to be disposed of, but a resource to be harvested. According to publisher reports from Business Insider, the company raised $7.5M in a Seed round in 2024. Based in North America and operating within the social impact and climate tech sectors, Wasted uses a 17-slide deck to explain how decentralized sanitation can solve massive inefficiencies in the global fertilizer and wastewater industries.

Slide 1-2: Branding and Visual Identity

The deck opens with a high-resolution, lifestyle-oriented image of their modular unit placed in a scenic, coastal environment. The tagline, "Separating Waste, Connecting Communities," immediately establishes the dual mission of the company: technical innovation (separation) and social impact (community). The branding is minimalist, using a clean sans-serif font and a sunburst-style logo that evokes a sense of circularity and energy.

Slide 3: A Bad Combination

Slide 3 defines the problem with a provocative hook: "Humans are the only mammals that intentionally mix their pee & poo." This slide identifies the core technical failure of modern sanitation. By mixing liquids and solids, we create a "sludge" that is described as "energy-intensive, expensive & unsustainable to process." This sets the stage for a solution based on source separation rather than downstream treatment.

Slide 4-5: Closing the Loop

Slide 5 introduces the economic opportunity of the circular economy. It notes that human waste is "packed with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium," the essential building blocks of fertilizer. The key metric on this slide is a boxed figure of "$13.6B," representing the "annual value of the nutrients in urban wastewater streams." This transition from a biological problem to a multi-billion dollar resource recovery opportunity is a classic venture capital narrative arc.

Slide 6-7: The Beachhead Market

Wasted identifies portable sanitation as their entry point. Slide 7 lists four reasons why this segment is "most ripe for transformation" : it is a "universally-hated product," utilizes "antiquated operations," is "fragmented and unconsolidated," and is "disconnected from sewers." By targeting portable toilets, Wasted avoids the massive capital expenditure required to retrofit existing municipal sewer infrastructure, allowing for faster iteration and deployment.

Slide 8-9: The Wasted Hub

Slide 9 explains the technical solution: the "wastedhub." This is described as a "sustainable & decentralized alternative to a wastewater treatment plant." The slide uses a simple flow diagram to show inputs and outputs. Inputs include separated pee and solids, agriculture and food waste, and renewable energy. Outputs include "NPK fertilizer," "Class-A biosolids," "95% recovered water," and the elimination of "nutrient pollution." This slide is crucial because it moves the company beyond being a 'toilet manufacturer' and into the realm of a 'decentralized utility.'

Slide 10-11: Anchor Customer Segment

Wasted focuses on the construction industry as its primary customer base. Slide 11 notes that construction is the "largest segment in the market (59%)" and offers a "dense concentration of customers in cities." The slide mentions "pilot projects with industry-leading construction companies," though it does not name specific partners. This focus on a high-volume, B2B segment suggests a clear path to scale and predictable revenue.

Slide 12-13: The Macro Market Opportunity

Slide 13 provides a comprehensive breakdown of the addressable markets. It splits the opportunity into three pillars:

Portable Sanitation: $17B global market, $2.1B US market. · Fertilizer Market: $171B global market, $83B US market, and $12B for organic fertilizer. · Wastewater Treatment: $280B global market, with $17.6B specifically for "global packaged, decentralized sanitation technology."

This slide effectively communicates that while the company starts with toilets, the ultimate goal is to capture value across the entire waste-to-commodity value chain.

Slide 14-15: The Wasted Team

The team slide (Slide 15) features five individuals. The co-founding trio consists of Thor Retzlaff (CMO) , Taylor Zehren (COO) , and Brophy Tyree (CEO) . They are supported by Abigail Cohen (CTO) and Bill Miles (Corporate Development) . The slide uses the header "Making Sanitation Sexy," which reflects the brand's attempt to bring modern design and marketing to a traditionally overlooked industry. However, the slide lacks professional bios or logos of previous companies/universities, which is a common omission in Seed-stage decks that rely more on vision than pedigree.

Slide 16-17: Conclusion

The deck concludes on Slide 17 with a quote from Julia Cavicchi: "Pee the change you wish to see in the world." This play on the famous Gandhi quote reinforces the company's mission-driven approach and maintains the lighthearted yet serious tone established throughout the presentation.

What Wasted Does Well

The Wasted deck excels at problem framing . By focusing on the biological inefficiency of mixing waste streams, they make the current multi-billion dollar sanitation industry look fundamentally broken. This creates an immediate "why now" and "why this" for investors. The visual design is also a significant asset; the photography of the units makes the product look like high-end consumer hardware rather than industrial equipment.

Furthermore, the market segmentation is logical. By identifying construction as 59% of the portable toilet market, they show they aren't just chasing small events or festivals, but are targeting the heavy-duty, high-utilization core of the industry. The inclusion of the $13.6B nutrient value figure (Slide 5) is a brilliant way to anchor the company's valuation in resource recovery rather than just service fees.

What is Missing from the Deck

Despite raising $7.5M, the deck has several notable omissions that would typically be expected in a Seed round. First, there is no explicit 'Ask' slide . While we know from publisher reports that they raised $7.5M, the deck itself does not state the amount sought or the intended use of funds. This suggests this version of the deck may have been used for initial interest or that the 'Ask' was handled in a separate document or conversation.

Second, there is a lack of unit economics . Investors in hardware-enabled service businesses usually want to see the cost to build a unit, the service revenue per month, and the margin on the fertilizer produced. Slide 9 mentions the outputs, but does not attach a dollar value to the hub's operational efficiency. Finally, there is no competitive landscape analysis. The deck mentions the industry is "fragmented," but it does not show how Wasted compares to incumbents like United Site Services or other circular sanitation startups.

Founder Takeaways: How to Copy Wasted's Success

Founders in 'unsexy' industries should take note of Wasted's branding strategy . They used high-quality imagery and a modern brand voice to make a sanitation company feel like a Silicon Valley tech firm. This is essential for attracting top-tier venture capital in sectors that are usually funded by private equity or traditional bank loans.

Another takeaway is the "Beachhead to Galaxy" strategy. Wasted doesn't try to replace the entire city sewer system on day one. They found a niche (portable toilets) where the problem is most acute and the barriers to entry are lowest, then mapped out how that leads to a $280B market. If you are building a complex infrastructure play, find the one segment where you can operate independently of the grid and prove your tech there first.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wasted's primary product?: Wasted develops modular, source-separating portable toilets and decentralized processing centers called 'wasted*hubs.' These hubs process human waste into NPK fertilizer, Class-A biosolids, and recovered water, creating a circular sanitation system that avoids traditional sewer infrastructure.
How large is the market Wasted is targeting?: The deck outlines three distinct market opportunities: a $17B global portable sanitation market, a $171B global fertilizer market, and a $280B global wastewater treatment market. They specifically highlight a $13.6B opportunity in recovering nutrients from urban waste.
Why did Wasted choose the construction industry as its beachhead?: According to slide 11, construction is the largest segment of the portable sanitation market at 59%. It offers a dense concentration of customers in urban environments and benefits from current sustainability and innovation tailwinds in the building sector.
What are the specific outputs of the Wasted processing hub?: As detailed on slide 9, the 'wasted*hub' produces four main outputs: NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) fertilizer, Class-A biosolids, 95% recovered water, and a reduction in nutrient pollution.
Who are the key members of the Wasted leadership team?: The team includes Co-Founders Thor Retzlaff (CMO), Taylor Zehren (COO), and Brophy Tyree (CEO), along with Abigail Cohen (CTO) and Bill Miles (Corporate Development), as shown on slide 15.

Cover slide of the Wasted pitch deck — Seed 2024 — Wasted pitch deck, slide 1 (2024)

Wasted pitch deck: the facts

Company: Wasted
Year: 2024
Stage: Seed
Slides: 17
Sector: Social impact / Sanitation
Deck type: Investor Pitch Deck
Outcome: $7.5M Raised
Headquarters: North America

Wasted pitch deck PDF

The full Wasted deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the Wasted* PBC pitch deck was used for

This deck is the 17‑slide fundraising presentation Wasted* PBC used to raise a seed‑stage round totaling about $7.5 million announced in January 2023, later referenced as 2024 funding in some coverage.[1][8][11][15] It was used to pitch investors including Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, Third Sphere, Day One Ventures, Pure Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Susquehanna Foundation and other climate‑ and impact‑focused backers.[1][2][3][6][7][8][9][13] The company proposes to disrupt the portable sanitation industry by separating human waste (especially urine) at the source and turning it into fertilizer, emphasizing the large nutrient value currently lost in urban wastewater streams.[1][8][14] The capital from this seed raise was earmarked for day‑to‑day operations and acquiring physical assets such as specialized porta‑potties, trucks, and processing equipment to run initial programs in Burlington, Vermont.[1][2][3][8][12]

Business model: Circular sanitation platform that redesigns portable toilets to separate and collect human urine and feces at the source, then processes these streams to recover nutrients (primarily from urine) and produce fertilizer products for agriculture.[1][2][3][8][14]

Round: Seed[1][2][3][5][8][9][10]
Lead investor: Collaborative Fund[1][3][8][9][10]
Investors: Collaborative Fund (lead), Divergent Capital (co‑lead), Day One Ventures, Third Sphere, Pure Ventures, Riverstyx Foundation, Gratitude Railroad, Susquehanna Foundation / Susquehanna Investments
Founded: 2020[5][9]
Founders: Taylor Zehren, Thor (Thorvald) Retzlaff, Tyree (Ty) McCarthy or Tyree Johnson McCarthy
Headquarters: Burlington, Vermont, USA[2][8][12]

Year: 2023 (announcement of the seed round); later coverage frames the funding impact and recognition into 2024–2026.[1][2][3][5][8][11][15]

Raising: Seed financing to fund operations and asset purchases (specialized porta‑potties, trucks, processing facilities) for circular sanitation pilots and early commercialization.[1][2][3][8][12]

Raised: Approximately $7.5 million seed‑stage capital (including a $5.7 million seed round plus pre‑seed) as widely reported, with some later sources citing around $7.7 million total raised from the broader investor syndicate.[1][2][3][4][5][8][13]

Industry: Circular sanitation / Wastewater resource recovery / Climate tech / Fertilizer[1][2][3][8][14]

Total funding: Approximately $7.5–$7.7 million in seed-stage and related funding from climate and impact investors including Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, Third Sphere, Day One Ventures, Pure Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Susquehanna Foundation/Investments, Riverstyx Foundation, Tuck Social Venture Fund, Dartmouth Angels, Cool Climate Collective, and others.[1][2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][13]

Use of funds as presented: Day‑to‑day operations and acquisition of physical assets such as specialized urine‑diverting portable toilets, trucks for waste transport, and processing infrastructure to recover nutrients and produce fertilizer, initially focused on a 200‑toilet pilot in Burlington, Vermont.[1][2][3][8][12]

What happened after the Wasted* PBC deck

Using the 17‑slide pitch deck highlighted by Business Insider and other outlets, Wasted* PBC secured approximately $7.5 million in seed‑stage funding led by Collaborative Fund and Divergent Capital to deploy a pilot network of about 200 nutrient‑recovering porta‑potties in Burlington, Vermont and build its circular sanitation platform, later expanding its operations and investor base to roughly $7

Announcement of approximately $7.5 million in seed‑stage funding, including a $5.7 million seed round plus prior pre‑see
Planned deployment of around 200 specialized portable toilets to construction and event sites in Burlington, Vermont, as
Transformation from the earlier Do Good Sh*t nonprofit effort into Wasted* PBC, a public benefit corporation operating i
Recognition of Wasted*’s work in press and climate‑tech communities, including coverage by Business Insider, TechCrunch,

What the Wasted* PBC deck got right

Compelling, mission‑aligned circular sanitation thesis. The deck is anchored on a clearly articulated **circular sanitation thesis**—capturing nutrients from human urine and feces to make fertilizer—which strongly aligns with climate, water, and food security investment themes and differentiates Wasted* from conventional porta‑potty providers.
Strong problem sizing around lost nutrient value. Coverage of the deck emphasizes the **massive nutrient value currently lost in urban wastewater streams**, supported by research that city wastewater contains enough nutrients to offset a meaningful share of global fertilizer demand, giving investors a sense of large market potential.
Dual revenue model leveraging portable sanitation and fertilizer. The business model combines a **service wedge (portable sanitation)** with a **fertilizer product**, providing multiple revenue streams and giving Wasted* an immediate, practical entry point (porta‑potties) into the broader nutrient‑recovery opportunity.
High‑quality, mission‑aligned investor syndicate. The seed round reflected in the deck attracted a notable climate‑ and impact‑oriented syndicate led by Collaborative Fund and Divergent Capital with participation from several respected funds and foundations, signaling external validation of both the thesis and team.
Concrete pilot deployment plan. The deck’s plan to deploy around **200 specialized porta‑potties in Burlington, Vermont** offers concrete, near‑term operational milestones that investors can use to assess execution, making the fundraising story more tangible than a purely conceptual platform narrative.
Public‑benefit framing and strong impact narrative. Positioning as a public benefit corporation and emphasizing social impact (sanitation, food security, emissions reduction) alongside commercial value helps Wasted* resonate strongly with impact investors and climate‑tech media, as reflected in press and recognition such as Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Impact.

What could have been stronger

Limited visibility on unit economics and margins. None of the accessible coverage of the deck mentions detailed unit economics (cost per toilet, hauling, processing, and fertilizer revenue) or margin projections, which could make it harder for investors to assess scalability and profitability of the porta‑potty plus fertilizer business model directly from the deck.
Regulatory and certification pathway not clearly laid out. While the deck and related articles emphasize the large theoretical nutrient value in urban wastewater streams, the publicly discussed materials do not show specific regulatory milestones, certification status for fertilizer products, or clear pathways through sanitation and agricultural regulations in the jurisdictions where Wasted* operates.
Scaling strategy beyond initial Burlington pilot appears high‑level. External descriptions of Wasted*’s plans focus heavily on the initial Burlington, Vermont pilot with about 200 toilets; there is little detail on how the model scales beyond early pilots (e.g., capital intensity of additional hubs, logistics in denser cities, or partnerships with large waste firms) within the deck summaries.
Early commercial traction metrics not prominently evidenced. Available reporting highlights strong mission framing (sanitation, food security, circular economy), but does not reference robust quantitative traction metrics at the time of the deck (such as existing toilet deployments, fertilizer tons produced, or signed multi‑year contracts), which may leave some investors questioning early commercial traction.

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

Clear articulation of the **circular sanitation thesis**—capturing nutrients from urine and feces to make fertilizer—aligns directly with climate, water, and food‑system investment theses.[1][2][3][8][10][14]
The **large nutrient value in urban wastewater streams** and the claim that urine nutrients could offset a material share of global fertilizer demand present a sizable theoretical market, which investors in climate and agtech will scrutinize.[8]
The model couples a **service business (portable sanitation)** with **product revenues (fertilizer)**, offering multiple potential revenue streams and a wedge into an entrenched, often low‑innovation industry.[1][2][3][8][12][14]
The syndicate includes well‑known climate and impact investors (Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, Day One Ventures, Third Sphere, Pure Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Susquehanna, Tuck Social Venture Fund), which can be a positive signal for other investors evaluating the opportunity.[1][2][3][5]
Operational plans such as deploying roughly **200 specialized porta‑potties** in Burlington provide concrete near‑term milestones that investors can track for execution quality.[2][3][8][12]

Risks that stand out

Execution risk in simultaneously running a logistics‑heavy sanitation service (porta‑potties, trucks, waste handling) and building a fertilizer production and sales operation, particularly at seed stage.[1][2][3][8][12][14]
Regulatory and permitting risk in both sanitation (portable toilets, waste hauling) and fertilizer markets, which could delay deployments or constrain growth in certain jurisdictions if not proactively managed.
Market‑adoption risk: construction and event operators may be price‑sensitive and reluctant to switch from incumbent porta‑potty providers unless Wasted* clearly demonstrates superior economics or regulatory advantages.
Technology and process risk: the practical efficiency of nutrient recovery at scale—including contamination issues, equipment reliability, and consistent fertilizer quality—must be proven beyond pilot scale.[8][14]
Scaling and capital‑intensity risk: expanding from a 200‑toilet Burlington pilot to multi‑city operations may require significant additional capital, operational expertise, and partnerships with larger waste or infrastructure players.

Questions this deck invites

What are the detailed unit economics of the Burlington pilot and subsequent hubs (capex per toilet and processing facility, opex per unit of waste handled, fertilizer yield and price, and expected margins)?
How does Wasted*’s technology and process compare to alternative nutrient‑recovery and circular sanitation solutions in terms of cost, regulatory burden, and environmental impact?
What is the regulatory status of Wasted*’s sanitation systems and fertilizer products (permits, approvals, certifications), and how do those requirements vary across target states or countries?
What long‑term contracts or partnerships has Wasted* secured with construction firms, event organizers, municipalities, or agricultural buyers to underpin volume on both the waste collection and fertilizer sales sides?
How sensitive is the business to fertilizer price volatility, changes in waste‑handling regulations, and competition from traditional porta‑potty providers or municipal wastewater upgrades?

What founders can take from the Wasted* PBC deck

A highly specific, circular economy thesis—turning porta‑potty waste into fertilizer—can attract a strong climate‑ and impact‑oriented investor syndicate when framed with clear environmental and economic benefits.[1][2][3][5][8][10][13]
Anchoring a deck around a **large, quantifiable resource‑waste problem** (lost nutrient value in urban wastewater) helps investors see both the scale of the opportunity and the rationale for re‑engineering an existing system.[1][8][14]
Coupling a familiar, under‑innovated infrastructure niche (portable sanitation) with a differentiated downstream product (fertilizer from human waste) can create a compelling wedge business model that is easy to understand but novel in execution.[1][2][3][8][12]
Seed‑stage decks that show concrete deployment plans—such as a specified number of toilets in a defined geography—provide tangible execution milestones that can reassure investors about near‑term traction pathways.[2][3][8][12]
Securing a diverse mix of lead, co‑lead, and mission‑aligned smaller funds (Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, impact foundations and university‑affiliated funds) demonstrates the value of aligning fundraising narrative with investors’ climate and social‑impact theses.[1][2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10
Public benefit framing and recognition in impact‑oriented lists (such as Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Impact) can reinforce the narrative that the company is building both commercial value and social/environmental benefits, which is attractive for impact investors.[4]

Wasted* PBC pitch deck: common questions

What does Wasted* PBC do?

Wasted* PBC is a Vermont‑based circular sanitation startup that redesigns portable toilets to separate and collect human urine and feces, then processes them to recover nutrients—especially nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from urine—and turn them into fertilizer products for farmers.[1][2][3][5][8][14]

Which fundraise was this Wasted* pitch deck used for?

The Business Insider‑featured pitch deck was used for Wasted*’s seed financing announced on January 25, 2023, in which the company raised about $7.5 million in seed and pre‑seed funding led by Collaborative Fund and co‑led by Divergent Capital.[1][3][8][9][11][15] This deck reportedly had 17 slides and focused on the lost nutrient value in urban wastewater and the opportunity in portable sanitation.[1][11]

Who invested in Wasted*’s seed round showcased in the deck?

Collaborative Fund led the seed round, with Divergent Capital as co‑lead; other disclosed participants include Day One Ventures, Third Sphere, Pure Ventures, Riverstyx Foundation, Gratitude Railroad, Susquehanna Foundation/Investments, the Tuck Social Venture Fund, Dartmouth Angels, Cool Climate Collective, and additional impact‑oriented investors.[1][2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][13]

How much did Wasted* raise with this pitch deck?

Reports from TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Business Insider and other sources state Wasted* raised approximately $7.5 million in seed‑stage funding (combining a $5.7 million seed and earlier pre‑seed), while later profiles and databases describe a total around $7.7 million including additional commitments and follow‑on capital.[1][2][3][4][5][8][13]

What did Wasted* plan to do with the funds from this seed round?

Wasted* planned to deploy around 200 specially designed portable toilets to construction and event sites around Burlington, Vermont, collect the separated waste, and process it at a nearby facility to create fertilizer—all while demonstrating a new circular sanitation model that improves portable sanitation economics and reduces pollution.[2][3][8][12][14]

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-30 from the pages below.

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