Each home across the United States throws away approximately 6.2 cups of food a week. Now, imagine how much food waste is created by large food processors like Kraft, Nestle, and Tyson. The EPA estimates that every year, the food waste in the U.S. is 170 million metric tons — that’s the equivalent of 467,000 Empire State Buildings. Equally disturbing, that this food waste produces the same amount of greenhouse gasses as 42 coal power plants or 37 million automobiles.
Food waste not only has a negative effect on the environment by contributing to climate change, resource waste (labor and energy), and water pollution, but the economic impact is also huge. Food processors incur significant costs to manage waste, including collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal. Likewise, food processing waste is often a lost opportunity for revenue since many waste products can be repurposed or processed into value-added products. Food companies are not only faced with these issues but are constantly trying to grow revenue and profit while under increasing pressure from their customers and policymakers to hit sustainability targets.
Fortunately, a new innovator, SCO2, Inc., is helping food companies tackle their waste problems head-on for profit and the planet. SCO2 uses patented supercritical CO2 extraction technology to manage food waste sustainably. Their process transforms nutrient-rich food waste into valuable products such as flavors, colors, functional ingredients, antioxidants and vitamins. This innovative approach helps large food manufacturers improve their sustainability efforts and, at the same time, eliminate tons of food processing waste annually.
Olaf N. Lee, a veteran in the field of waste processing and recycling is the co-founder of SCO2. Lee has dedicated his decades-long career to developing improved systems and equipment aimed at tackling growing challenges in agriculture, transportation, energy and waste management. “We are incubating ideas and products from the napkin to commercialization,” Lee explains. His pursuits led to SCO2’s groundbreaking technology (Supercritical Carbon Dioxide), which is poised to set a new standard in green extraction and shift current food industry waste practices.
Lee has not only developed a novel technology with SCO2, but he has also successfully expanded other technologies to operate on a large industrial scale. His approach was not just about creating new technologies for the sake of innovation but also about building solutions with a clear market application. That pragmatic approach caught the attention of Michael Sigel, SCO2’s prolific CEO.
“Initially, I didn’t fully understand the technology.” Soon after Sigel and Lee began discussing SCO2’s potential, a pivotal moment occurred: the patent was issued. This recognition by the USPTO clearly indicated to Sigel that there was something fundamentally different and valuable about SCO2.
Sigel’s background in food processing and manufacturing made him acutely aware of the challenges in waste management and the untapped potential of extracting high-value materials from waste. “I had been working with a juice manufacturer with an urgent need to get rid of our waste by-products. We settled on paying to compost everything possible vs hauling to the landfill. Talking with Olaf made me realize the untapped potential of extracting value from waste. It sparked the question: Could SCO2 be the one to unlock this opportunity? While I wasn’t familiar with the term ‘upcycling’ or even supercritical CO2 extraction at the time, the focus was on being pioneers in utilizing unique process technology to address this challenge.”
This realization, seeing SCO2 not just as a technical breakthrough but as a dynamic approach to sustainability, sealed Sigel’s commitment to Lee and to the company. Let’s be clear: Sigel and SCO2’s mission isn’t just about sustainability. It’s also about impact. Sigel explains, “What I looked at was, can this technology really scale cost-effectively to tackle this sized problem? The goal from the beginning was to reduce millions of tons of food waste annually and help our customers profit from upcycling. To do that, we felt SCO2’s tech had to be ten times better than existing solutions; it had to be a breakthrough. Being first to market is tough, but I also knew it could be immensely gratifying with the right team.”
The right team is what SCO2 has. Greg White, the other co-founder and CTO, brings over 25 years of experience in engineering patentable technologies, while Sigel adds a solid track record for strategically planning, launching, and scaling early-stage businesses. By adding Lee’s vast knowledge and accomplishments to the mix, SCO2 has a well-rounded, all-star team. Their collective experience ensures that SCO2 is not just an innovative idea but a scalable solution that is receiving rigorous validation from industry and academic experts.
“We’ve talked to a number of experts and learned a lot by talking with people who have spent careers in various aspects of extraction. When you first share your solution, you’re not sure how you will be received by the world. I think you have to go out there with some cautious optimism. Then, you have to ensure that you’re confident before you start bringing on customers, promising deliverables to them, and so on. Now that we have brought SCO2 to the market, we’re getting a lot of recognition from global organizations who see its vast potential. And it’s up to us to deliver,” Sigel adds.
Reducing and preventing food waste is a win on all fronts, not only for the team at SCO2 but for everyone. It can enhance food security, boost productivity and economic efficiency, conserve resources and energy, and combat climate change. Sigel explains, “We are changing something in a meaningful way. That’s our north star. Having an aligned sense of purpose is essential to achieving global impact. And that’s true for everyone connected to SCO2 – our employees, customers, investors, suppliers and partners. There’s also a speed component to this. To achieve the kind of scale we’re talking about in the next five years, we need to make our technology widely available. That’s why we’re fundraising, to accelerate our path to impact.”
Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.
