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Vermont-based Wasted* converts human waste from its environmentally friendly portable toilets into fertilizer.
We’ve all been there, at an outdoor concert or event, when the only place for a bathroom break is the dreaded porta potty. A Vermont-based company hopes to make the experience not only more pleasant, but also more fruitful.
Wasted*, launched in 2022 by Taylor Zehren, Thor Retzlaff, and Brophy Tyree, puts the urine collected in their porta potties to good use. A system inside the portable toilets separates the solids from the urine, then funnels the urine into large tanks at the company’s facility in Burlington, Vermont. There, it’s pasteurized to kill off pathogens and enriched with magnesium, and the resulting material is heated, dried, and ground to make WeeBloom fertilizer (available on Amazon). Eight gallons of urine creates one bag, which can cover 24 square feet of garden space.
Zehren and Retzlaff’s desire to find a solution to the problems created by human waste was sparked in 2018 when they traveled extensively through the backcountry of the arctic, Patagonia, and Nepal and observed those issues in real time. Their most stunning discovery: 26,000 pounds of mismanaged human waste is left on the side of Mount Everest every year.
When they returned home, the pair founded Do Good Sh*t, a nonprofit that aimed to provide sustainable sanitation to ecologically sensitive areas and neighboring communities. The organization installed waste management systems all over the world, and eventually saw an opportunity to apply what they’d learned in more populated areas.
“Our founding team are big backcountry enthusiasts,” Wasted* chief of staff Rachel Binstock says. “While on expeditions all over the world, they saw human waste impacting headwaters and thought there could surely be a better way. They took apart every backcountry toilet on the market and found the best one, which we now have in our product line. They started installing those conveyor toilets in backcountry settings as part of Do Good Sh*t. This parlayed into Wasted*.”
Ben & Jerry’s, the famous Burlington, Vermont-based ice cream company, were the first to use Wasted* porta potties, on the company’s annual free cone day.
There’s this realization that my body can be a benefit and contribute to nature, it can help make shoots, fruit, or flowers. We want to unlock that ‘a-ha’ moment.
– Taylor Zehren, Wasted* co-founder
“We were totally over-prepared, and we were nervous in a good way about how people would react,” Retzlaff says. “Ultimately witnessing people realize there are better, more dignified toilets out there is why we built Wasted*. Sometimes when we are doing the dirty work, you don’t hear from the public much, and so being able to see people react to the systems and the brand we are building is incredibly inspiring.”
Now, Wasted* has almost 500 porta potties that they rent out to organizations staging local concerts and races (including the Vermont City Marathon), parks and municipalities, and even private groups hosting events like weddings. Wasted* potties are also used at construction sites and on five farms. The company currently serves Burlington, Boston, and Cape Cod.
Since Wasted* launched its WeeBloom fertilizer in December 2024, it’s sold 300 bags. Four hundred porta potties can collect more than 24,000 gallons of urine a year, which makes 1,702 pounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that can feed 24 acres of land.
The company tries to weave sustainability into every aspect of the business. They even designed the potties so that they can transport more of them in fewer trips. They also stock the porta potties with unbleached bamboo toilet paper they make themselves (and sell on their website).
Beyond creating greener porta potties, Wasted* aims to help people understand that their waste could be useful.
“A lot of people don’t understand what fertilizer is,” Zehren says. “There’s this realization that my body can be a benefit and contribute to nature, it can help make shoots, fruit, or flowers. We want to unlock that ‘a-ha’ moment.”
